Dawn of the Dead : A Different Tale
by thatonedude
Summary: The last two chapters are up. Hope and the others try to escape and find peace in this world filled with the living dead. Warning, Some rough language and violence!
1. Chapter 1

Dawn of the Dead : A different tale

(Disclaimer, I don't own anything from the dawn of the dead franchise.)

Chapter 1 Woman, Hospital, The Dead

"It's easy, take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger, you'll hit the target almost everytime." Hopes father once told her when she was younger.

That was when life was simple and she didn't have very many worries. It was before the world was covered with the dead. The dead that roamed the earth. She didn't have any idea or even a theory as to why they started roaming the earth they just did in her mind and that was all she really needed to know about it.

Her dad was a gun fanatic and had collected many types of guns, all of which she had learned to use. It further helped her in the long run that he was a military man that was able to teach her minor Close Quarters Combat just before she moved into the city. He figured that she would need it since she was moving to the city.

She moved to West Haven and went to college right up until the first known attacks occured. Soon after the plague spread and before she knew it she was fending for her life. Her dad wasn't stupid though, he gave her a weapon to defend herself with despite her arguments against it. He gave her a 9mm handgun and she always kept it in her bedstand right up until the streets were unsafe to walk and the military went through.

Unfortunately she missed the one and only ride out of the city and later found out that it was blind luck that she had missed it, the whole vehicle was submerged with the dead and soon the last radio reports announced it. Then there was radio silence followed by the electricity going out in most of the city.

She ran aimlessly trying to find a way outside of the city when she ran into a little girl by the name of Rae Ann. She had lost both of her parents. Hope took her under her wing and together they managed to escape a few large groups of the dead together. Locking themselves in a convenient store along with three other people.

How and why she left it was a simple reason, Rae Ann cut her leg on their way to the store and needed medicine. They'd been living there for the last three weeks and she noticed that the little girl was getting sick. At first she thought it was the flu, but then she looked at the wound and realized that it was beginning to look infected.

It took her only a few minutes to decide that she needed to get to the hospital to get Rae Ann some medicine. She felt that she needed to keep the girl alive for her own sanity, after all the girl was her only reason for living at the moment.

She remembered the shocked looks on the faces of the others when she told them she was going and they were to stay and protect the girl.

"That isn't right Hope! I can go with you at least!" Jake said, he was the closest in the group to her own age being only a year older then her.

"I need to go by myself. What if something happens here and the others get killed? Who's going to protect her? I need someone like you to be by her side until I get back." she said.

He let her go without further argument. Hector, the oldest one there decided not to even bother arguing with her, he knew she was too stubborn to argue with. Jeff, a elementary school teacher gave her simple advice as she left.

"If you see more then three or four of them run." he said to her.

He then handed her the shotgun that was found underneath the counter of the store. She took it and handed him her handgun. He looked up at her wearily and then gave her a brief hug, he knew that there was a possibilty that she wouldn't be back.

And here she was, walking over the biggest car pile up she had ever seen in her life. It was main street the busiest street in West Haven. She walked over a smashed in Volkswagon with the driver still partially in the drivers seat. His head was mangled and his brains were dried to another car that the Volkswagon was resting on.

She shook her head and looked out at the pile up that was stretched out before her. This would take a while and she really didn't have time to spare. She began to climb around the cars stopping only once to balance on the bumper of an up turned car. Then she found an alleyway and decided to take it. She knew that it led to a less used street and the hospital was only four blocks away from there.

"Not a single one of those dead things around." she said as she climbed down from the pile up.

Just a few feet away from her was a little pizza place that she used to love to eat at. It had an oldsmobile sticking out of it. She felt a sadness creep into her as she walked past it. She shook memories of the pizza place from her mind, she needed to think only of Rae Ann and the task she was supposed to be doing.

She continued down the road for a block and then took an alleyway because of the zombies she saw roaming the streets. There were too many for her to take down with the gun she had. It carried only five rounds and it was the only five rounds she had for it. She only killed six of those things as it was and she shuddered at the thought of having to pull the trigger again.

She walked down the small alleyway past the dumpsters and garages that lined it. On the way towards the end of the alley she saw a man laying near a dumpster, the back of his head was sprayed out all over a fence. He died with his eyes open. She leaned down and closed his cold eye lids as best as she could then she journeyed on.

As she walked through the next alley she could see the solitary zombie that stood in the middle of someones backyard. It spotted her and ran towards her as fast as it could. As it approached her she hit it firmly in the face with the butt of the gun. It went down hard and she brought the butt on it's face smashing part of it's skull off. She looked at it in amazement as it's grey matter spattered across the paved driveway of the backyard.

Sickness filled her stomach as the smell of decayed flesh hit her nostrils but she managed to wait out the nausea that tried to force itself into her stomach. She walked on to the end of the alley and then went left down Washington and Sixth street. She only had two more blocks to go and she dreaded the next two blocks. The street the hospital was on was a moderately busy street and she knew she would more than likely run into more zombies.

The gravel behind her crunched and she turned around just in time to see a zombie shamble in the opposite direction. It probably smelled the blood of the recently killed zombie. She felt the nausea rise in her stomach again as she thought of it going over to the dead to feast.

She walked on going across a sidewalk that was lined with discarded money, toys, and car keys among other things. She even saw an unopened envelope addressed to a woman from a man. She bent down and picked it up putting it in her pocket, it was something to read regardless of what it was and what it had in it.

She had three other letters in her pocket, one from her dad just before the whole zombie thing happened on this side of the states. He told her to be careful and to use the gun if she happened to see someone that wasn't quite themselves. He also said that he loved her and that she was going to be okay. It was almost like a premonition of some sort.

She never wondered if he was okay, what would it help? She just left the very thought of it out of her mind. Especially when she was doing something important. If her mind was distracted by things like that then she could get bitten and that would be bad.

Her mind did start to wander though, it started to wander to the beginning of this endless nightmare. The dorms were closing permanently and the dean had sent everyone still there to an auditorium for a last encouraging speech.

"By now most of you know that there has been an odd phenomena of sorts in the world for about a week. It is showing no signs of letting up and in fact as most of you know from watching CNN, it is actually spreading to the western states and will soon be in our very city. I have come today to tell you that this is merely a hurtle in life and we can overcome it. Man will prevail over this as man has prevailed over everything that has been thrown at him." He stopped and wiped a tear from his eye.

"Unfortunately it seems our military is losing ground to these things, but rest assured we will win this. I am also here to let you know that everyone can leave whenever they please, go home to your parents and tell them how much you love them. The dorms will be closing in two days, what you do in that time is up to you."

She went to the nearest phone and called her dad, he was living in Kansas. He never answered the phone, but that was how it usually was. She tried four times to call him and finally on the last call he answered. He sounded out of breath.

"Daddy?" she asked over the reciever.

"Hi honey, whats going on?" he asked her.

"I'm scared, they said that the plague was going to reach us in a few days, they've closed the dorms down and have asked us all to return to our homes and wait until this whole thing blows over. I want to come home dad, I'm scared." she said in a voice that was unsteady.

"Honey if you can make it home then by all means come home." he said in a concerned fatherly tone.

"I'll try daddy." She said.

"I should tell you though that everyone is leaving in our farming community though." he said.

She felt a heaviness hit her in the chest, it was then that the reality of it really settled in her mind.

"What are you going to do?" she asked her dad, in her heart she knew that what he was going to say before he even said it.

"I'm going to make a stand here. This farm has been in our family for three generations and it's seventeen miles away from the nearest town. I'll be safe and if you can make it home you'll be safe too." he said.

"I'm going to call and see if there are any planes or busses that leave the city. If not I'll try to get there some other way." She said to her father.

After a brief goodbye she hung up the phone and began making preparations. She packed her bags and made a call to the airport unfortunately they were closing the airport down due to difficulties. The busses were all caught in traffic on there way out of the city and there wasn't a train that wasn't already packed.

She stayed there deciding that in a few days something would come up, a bus would be ready or something. But it never happened and that was when her roommate came in with a bite wound on her hand.

Her roommate was a boyish looking girl by the name of Jennifer and she was attacked by a patient that was at the hospital she was working at. She was training to be a nurse and had actually been going to school to become one. Within a few hours her breathing had slowed and by that night she was one of those lifeless creatures.

Hope had come into the dorm room to get some luggage having decided on leaving by hitch hiking, it was dangerous but she would try anything to get home. she went to her bedside to get the gun when Jennifer reached out and grabbed her. At first she thought that Jennifer needed help, that she was choking. It sounded that way by the gutteral noises she was making. She turned around and Jennifer lunged on her knocking her into the bed. She screamed out in panic and grabbed the pistol pushing Jennifer back.

"Don't move Jennifer, I will shoot if I have to!" She screamed at her dead roommate.

Her roommate ran towards her and she pulled the trigger. She saw a small hole form in her roommates head above her right eye. The girl fell to the ground lifelessly and Hope also went to the ground on her knees crying at what she had done.

She tried to call the cops but the phones were dead and it sounded like they were busy outside. She could hear the steady crackle of gunfire all over the city. Twice she heard loud booming noises and the earth shook beneath her feet.

She didn't have anywhere to run except to the deans office where she found both the dean and his secretary dead. Suicide, both of them, he swung by his office fan and while she lay on the floor with a prescription pill bottle in her hand. They had to have been dead for at least seven or eight hours.

And that was how all of that went, she didn't leave the city and now she stood in front of the hospital looking darkly at the front doors.

"All I have to do is find the pharmaceutical area and get some penicillin for Rae Ann." she whispered to herself.

She grabbed the straps of her backpack and walked into the building. Inside at the lobby she saw a dead nurse laying on the floor, her head was partially eaten and her ribs were sticking out of a torn area of her uniform. She walked down a hall to the left and began rummaging for anything that might be of use. All she managed to find was a handful of bandages that might be useful later on.

she continued to the end of the hallway until she reached a door that led to the stairs. Once inside she walked up a floor and then searched the area. To her it was extremely quiet and that scared her. It was a place of death, there should have been at least one zombie, but she hadn't seen one yet. At the end of the right hall she found the pharmacy.

She leaped over the counter and began to rummage around for penicillin and painkillers of all sorts. After filling the backpack with some items she hopped the counter and was on her way when she heard gunfire from one of the higher floors. At first she was going to just leave, then she recognized the sounds. It was a machine gun of some sort and that meant either the cops or the military. Relief almost swept over her but then a thought occured to her. How many were actually up there, maybe it was just one and if so he might very well be dead.

She climbed the stairs slowly, her shotgun ready. She lamost reached the top when four police men came bursting through the door. She screamed out at the suddeness of the situation and the men stopped what they were doing. They all looked at her in awe, almost like she was something they had never seen before.

"Another survivor!" a man with a crew cut said.

"Let's get going! Run people run!" another one said.

They ran down three sets of stairs before they finally stopped and the only reason they stopped was to block the door with a heavy shelf. A handsome officer approached her and smiled, he had blue eyes and brown hair.

"I am so glad we are not the only survivors!" he exclaimed and hugged Hope roughly.

"Where did you come from lady? Why were you in this hospital?" The oldest officer asked her.

"I came here for medical supplies for a little girl, she was cut a few weeks back and now the cut is infected. I have to get back to her or else she could die!" she said and began to walk back to the entrance.

"Hey lady, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here, it's way too dangerous to go out there!" the handsome one said.

"But Rae Ann!" she started to protest.

"Sorry but he's right, it would be a bad idea to go out there right now." Crew cut said.

"I'm sorry I let you fellas down." a wounded officer said.

Before anyone of them realized what was happening he stuck his revolver in his mouth and pulled the trigger. His body kicked once and then went limp.

"Ah no, Kenny no!" Crew cut screamed out.

"Get him covered up now!" Gray hair said.

They threw a curtain over his body after retrieving his weapons. Handsome walked over to where Hope stood and then stood next to her.

"He was bitten when we went looking for survivors upstairs." he explained.

She tugged at a handful of her light brown hair trying to figure out a way she could sneak off without them knowing. The medical supplies she held did no good to her if she didn't have little Rae Ann to use them on. She began to pace worried about the girl more then anything else.

"Sit down lady!" Crew cut barked.

She sat down almost mechanically. She didn't need this right now, the whole trip stopped short by these cops that wanted to stay in the bottom floor a hospital.

"Look we'll be leaving here shortly but right now we need to take a rest, we've been on our feet for almost two days straight and we are all tired." Gray hair said.

"Whats your name?" Crew cut asked her.

"Hope." she said.

"My name is Mike, the old guy is Victor, and the pretty boy is Drake." Mike said to her.

She stood up again and begun to walk towards the door. Mike ran up to her and grabbed her by the arm. She flicked his hand off of her arm and then grabbed his wrist and twisted it behind his back. A technique her father had shown her.

"I'm leaving, if you want to follow me that's fine. I have to make sure that Rae Ann gets this stuff. I'll give you some info about her. Shes six years old, she has blonde hair and blue eyes, both of her parents are dead. She depends on me as much as I do on her. If any of you think you can stop me from going back to the store to get her then your all wrong. I'll shot you anyone of you if you try and detain me." she said in a voice that was slowly losing control.

"You said store right?" Victor asked her.

She nodded and then let go of Mike. Victor called for him to go there along with Drake. They discussed something in private for a moment and then they all approached her.

"Look Hope, we were going to go with you no matter what, we just needed a breather is all. When we reach your store we'll get your kid and then we'll all get out of this city. How's that sound to you?" Victor asked.

"It sounds good." She said and began to go for the front doors.

With that they all gathered around her and went out the front entrance. She back tracked all the way back main street before she opted to go a different direction then the one she previously went. Mike stopped her only once for a cigarette and then they went off to the convient store.

"Are there anymore people with you?" Drake asked her.

"Yes three others, Jeff, Jake, and Hector. They're watching over Rae Ann." She said.

"It's just the three of us, there were originally five of us, but, well you saw for yourself back there. We're getting whittled down to nothing." Drake said.

They walked in silence for a while, all of them lost in their own thoughts. Drake thought back to when he lost his fiancee Trisha. A brief image of her dead body flashed through his mind and he stopped for a second closing his eyes tight trying to erase the memory from his mind.

"Are you okay?" Mike asked him.

"Yeah, just bad memories." He replied and then started walking again.

They walked on until they reached a small commercial area. It was there that they saw a fire and heard several gunshots. Hope felt panic grip her as she realized it was coming from the store that they had been hiding in. She felt her feet began to move underneath her as she ran to the store. She felt her mouth opening and closing as she screamed out the word no. Drake grabbed her and pulled her back, she fought with him trying to go forward into the pit of zombies that congregated to the front of the store.

She saw everything perfectly, every minute detail. The cracks in the sidewalk, the nikes one zombie was wearing, the thick black smoke that was pouring out of the store. The fire that was glowing behind the apartment that was above the little shop. Drake held her back from all of this as she screamed.

She kept at it though, squirming in his arms trying to get away. She hit him in the groin purely by accident and that caused him to let her go. As she approached the building she took aim with the shotgun and fired into the crowd of zombies. Two of them fell to the ground dead from head wounds. A third reeled back from the attack, a flap of skin tore free from the scatter shot.

She fired into the crowd again and again, not doing very much damage. Suddenly she felt Drake grab her again and he ran backwards with her in his arms. They jumped into a truck that was near by and he locked the doors.

"Get down, they didn't see us yet!" he said.

"Rae Ann! No! Why?" she cried out in anguish.

"Shut up! They won't find us if we stay quiet!" Drake whispered harshly into her ear.

Suddenly Drakes radio crackled to life, and he muffled it as best as he could.

"This is Victor, just wanted to let you know we're holed up in a van two cars down from you. How does it look that way?" Victor asked.

Drake peeked his head up and saw several zombies going in their direction. He lowered his head and grabbed his M16.

"It doesn't look good!" he said and then looked at Hope with a hateful stare.

"Thanks, now we got a bunch of these things coming our way!" he said heatedly.

"Drake, we're hotwiring the vehicle, we'll swing by and pick you two up before too many of them come at us." Victor said.

Hope closed her eyes and saw the splintered front door in her mind. Was it possible that Rae Ann and the others were dead? She wanted to believe they were alive and well but she knew it wasn't possible. One of lifes tougher lessons in this new world, she guessed, was not to get attached to anyone emotionally. She closed her eyes even tighter when she heard the van pull up to the side of the truck they were hiding in.

As they opened the door to the Truck to get into the van they heard a noise, it was another gunshot. Then they heard someone scream out of the window. Hope looked up in time to see Jake waving a blanket out of the smokey window. Tears streamed down her face as she saw this, it meant the possibilty that Rae Ann was alive after all. Then the zombies slammed into the side of the van and they almost got pushed over.

"We got to get moving or else they'll knock this vehicle over!" Victor said.

He started to drive it down the road and then turned it around hitting some of the dead on the way around. He drove it right up to the window that Jake was hanging out of.

"Quick they're breaking through the door!" he screamed inside the building.

They all heard the splintering wood somehow, they even heard grunts and little shrill cursings as the people in the upper apartment of the convienient store fought off the dead. Hope felt panic rush to her head, this could be it for them. She was looking up when she heard a scream coming from inside of the building, then a steady POP! POP! POP! as the gun went off multiple times. She fainted when she saw Hector fall out of the window, one of his arms dangling by a thread and bite marks all over his body.


	2. Chapter 2

(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Chapter 2 Waking, Survivors, Jeff

"Oh God it hurts so bad!" An unfamiliar voice moaned somewhere beyond consciousness.

Hope didn't want to wake up after the incident at the store but somewhere deep in her mind she knew if she didn't wake up soon they might think something was wrong with her and try to leave her. It would be too much of a burden to carry the woman all the time.

She let the light flood into her eyes and looked around confused at first. They were in a building of some sort, it was well lit and that was something that caught her off guard. There was electricity in this building.

As her eyes began to adjust she saw that they were in a mall. She was laying on a bench near a store that sold various card collectibles. The light was brilliant and it left her somewhat blinded until she heard a small voice.

"Hope!" It said weakly.

She turned around and saw Rae Ann sitting on a bench across from her own. Tears welled up in her eyes and she began to cry. Rae Ann began to climb off her bench when Jeff scooped her up and took her over to Hope. Jake was with Drake and the other cops huddled around a man that was bleeding profusely from his left arm.

"How?" She asked through a sob.

"That guy Drake instructed us to jump onto the roof of the van, we barely made it! But Hector..." Jeff explained.

A brief image of Hectors mutilated body flashed through her mind and she pushed it out as best as she could. Rae Ann held onto her tightly and buried her head in the woman's bosom. She felt the little girl hitching up and down and knew that she was crying.

"Jeff we need you to come here! We have to discuss something with you!" Mike barked out.

Jeff put his head down and jogged to where the other men stood. Jake looked worriedly over towards the wounded man and then stepped in front of Hope and Rae Ann. He looked at them and tried to give them a reassuring smile but it seemed forced.

"How did we get here?" Hope asked.

"Victor saw the place, it was lit up like Las Vegas, and suggested we check it out. We found that guy and two others but they ran off before we could get to them." He stopped and then looked over to where the man was.

"He was bitten a few hours ago, I don't know much about it but what I do know is that people that get bit change. He...They're deciding what to do about him." Jake continued.

"What do you mean deciding what to do about him!?" Hope said.

She got up and walked over to where the other men were huddled. A young man in a janitor's coveralls sat in a pool of blood. He held his left arm tightly against his chest. Sweat was pouring down his face in small trickles. His left hand was a pale almost ashen color, it looked as if the blood was drained from it even though it was still bleeding badly.

"What are you going to do with him?" She asked them.

"There might be a chance for him if we amputate it, the problem is stopping the blood flow and keeping him alive." Drake said.

"Why couldn't one of us have been a doctor!" Mike complained.

"Okay here's what we'll do, we'll cut off his arm and then burn the wound shut! We just need to find a place to do it where the little girl can't see." Victor said.

"Oh God no, please don't cut it off! Please don't cut off my arm!" The man began to plead.

Jeff grabbed him and began to pick him up, carrying him with help from Victor. They led him to a bench and sat him down on it. Mike grabbed a blanket from a small store that sold Bedroom material and wrapped it around the bleeding man. They all stood in silence for a moment and then Victor spoke up.

"That electronics store, the employees area in the back. We'll do it back there. Someone get a saw from that hardware store we walked past earlier and a blow torch too. Is there any iodine in that backpack?"

Their search for a saw turned out badly and they chose an axe instead, the blow torch however was easier to find. A quick search through Victor's backpack produced a small bottle of iodine. They grabbed the man (Who said his name was Glen.) and took him to the back of the electronics store. Hope was there when the makeshift surgery took place.

The gleam of the axe reminded her of her father's farm and the smell of freshly cut wood. Sometimes her father would let her try her hand at chopping a few blocks of fire wood. He's smile and tell her what a good worker she was. She wanted to be at his farm, it was better than being stuck in this room with a bunch of nervous people.

"Glen, we have hold you down." Mike said and put his weight down on Glen's legs.

"Oh please for the love of God don't do this man! Please! Oh shit, I play guitar man!" Glen began to blubber.

_Not anymore you don't_, Hope thought morbidly.

Without warning Drake slammed the butt of his gun across the back of Glen's head. He went limp almost instantly, his eyelids fluttered. Hope wished they had something to numb his arm before they cut it off, but none of them knew what to look for when they were at the hospital and all she grabbed was painkillers, gauze, and penicillin for Rae Ann.

"Didn't you guys grab anything that could numb him up?" She asked in a concerned voice.

All three of the cops looked at each other uncomfortably and then Victor shook his head. He grabbed the polaski axe and looked down at the unconsious man's arm. It was time to amputate the infected arm.

Jake got the torch ready and Drake tied a tourniquet around his upper arm near the shoulder as tight as he could get it. Hope could tell that he didn't want to be there and she herself started to feel a little bit like leaving. Jeff was with Rae Ann looking for something to keep the little girl distracted.

Drake then tied Glen's wrist to a leg that was underneath a heavy shelf. They made sure his arm was pulled out as tight as it could go. Hope kneeled on his right arm and turned his head away from the infected arm. Victor took aim with the axe and stopped once, a bead of sweat slowly climbing down the side of his face.

"If this doesn't work then I take full responsibility." He said.

He swung the axe down full force, the muscles in his forearms standing out in thick chords. It came down with a whoosh of air and went slicing into the unconsious man's forearm. Suddenly he began to kick and buck around.

"OH MY GOD! SONUVABITCHOHSONUVABITCH!" Glen suddenly screamed out.

Hope held his arm down as best as she could looking at Mike and Drake in surprise. Jake suddenly muttered a curse under his breath and pointed at the mangled arm. Victor put his head down and shook it and then looked at the others. His hand was twitching but about six inches below it the cut was only about halfway through his arm. Strings of muscle and sinew stood out and the bone was clearly visible.

"I didn't get all the way through! Hold him down so I can finish!" He yelled out.

They held him down as best as they could, which was much harder now that he was screaming and thrashing around. Drake attempted to knock him out again but only managed to wrap him across the ear cutting it open. Victor stood there for a second and then hefted the axe and swung it down again.

A fresh spray of blood went squirting in all directions and then began to pour out of the open wound. Jake raced to the bloody stump and began to burn it as best as he could. The whole while Glen screamed a squirmed around trying his best to get free. His severed limb twitched spasmodically. Victor began wrapping it with gauze and tried his best to keep the bandage tight.

Hope tried her best to calm Glen down but was not able to. She tried to block out his screaming and cursing but couldn't. She began to feel dizzy from the sight of all the blood and found that a tiny bit managed to get on the sleeve of her shirt. She felt sick but still maintained a calm composure.

"Now what do we do?" Mike asked over the noise Glen was making.

"We quarantine him for now and see what happens." Victor said.

They grabbed him and led him to a store that sold movies and magazines. Drake found him an easy chair at a furniture store across from the store they put him in. They gave him a few bottles of water and some food and closed the iron gate locking it with a padlock they found in the hardware store. As they set him down in the chair he passed out.

"Is he going to make it?" Mike asked.

"I don't know, but try to keep everyone away from this area of the building." Victor said.

"What do we do about the other guys we saw him with?" Drake asked Victor.

"We look for them, ask them questions. They may have answers, hopefully they can give us any word on the military or is the US is even doing anything about this mess." He muttered.

Hope noticed all of them were looking to Victor as the leader. She figured it was because he was a seargent in the police force. He looked like your typical grey haired hollywood cop. He stood there looking at them all with cool blue eyes that seemed to notice all of his surroundings. In her mind he seemed like he would have been a good person, maybe a good father? She wondered as she walked off to look for Jeff and Rae Ann.

She walked past the usual stores in a shopping mall, furniture stores, book stores, jewelery stores, etc. It almost had the illusion that none of the zombie epidemic happened. As she walked past the food court Jake caught up to her.

"Can I walk with you for a bit?" He asked her.

"Sure. I don't think I'll ever get that guy's screams out of my head." She said.

"I know what you mean." He replied.

They walked in silence for a spell and then as they reached a toy store called Childz Play, they saw Rae Ann and Jeff.

"How did it go?" Jeff asked anxiously.

"Well if you really want to know, it didn't go as smoothly as we thought it would. Then how could it, we aren't doctors." Jake suddenly snapped.

Jeff reeled away as if he were hit by a physical blow. Rae Ann suddenly came bursting in between the adults with an excited look on her face. She had an arm full of dolls and despite still being sick managed to exclaim how awesome it was to own all of them.

Hope smiled and took her into her arms holding the girl tightly. She felt as if the girl were a miracle of sorts, given to her. She let the girl go and then watched as she went back into the toy store to gather more things.

"I should make her rest, she still doesn't look well." She said to the two men.

"I gave her two shots of penicillin while you were out." Jeff told her.

She thanked him and gathered up her miracle girl and took her to a furniture store to rest. The day seemed like it dragged on and all she could think about was sleep. Rae Ann held onto her neck tightly with one arm and with the other held onto a small teddy bear. They found a bed near the back of the store and layed down on it getting ready for bed.

"Hope, do you think my mommy and daddy went to Heaven?" the little girl suddenly asked her as she was nearly asleep.

She perked up a little and looked down into the girls beautiful blue eyes. She wondered what she should tell her and decided it would be best to say yes. Even if she now had her doubts about the place existing, the girl didn't and that was all that mattered. If one of them could believe in such a place then that made her feel all the better.

"Yes, I think they did." She said.

Rae Ann suddenly rested her head on Hope's shoulder and began to nestle in. Hope smiled and hugged her tightly letting sleep pull her into the peaceful darkness of slumber. She only hoped she would sleep dreamless.

Hope was pulled from her dreamless sleep by a hard shaking. She was confused to see Mike standing there looking concerned. She quickly reached down and felt for Rae Ann. She relaxed when she felt the little girl next to her. Then she looked back up at him with a confused stare slightly tilting her head as if to ask a question telepathically.

"We found more people on the second floor. Four of them. Well there was five but..." He trailed off.

"What happened?" She asked still tired.

"Jeff shot the fifth survivor on accident." Mike said.

"What?" She exclaimed.

She was suddenly wide awake all sleep leaving her in a rush. In the back of her mind she pictured a man she witnessed getting shot to death by a more paranoid man back before she met Rae Ann and the rest. She could still see the paranoid man turning his head and looking at her.

"He deserved it, he was one of those things." The man had said moments before shooting himself in the temple.

She let the thought go and climbed out of bed carefully grabbing a pair of shoes to put on.

"What happened exactly?" She asked as she tied them.

"We were searching the bottom floor and making better barracades at all the exits when we heard some movement above us. We looked up and damned if we didn't see one of those dead things roaming around. Vic sends me and Jeff to go kill it. We had to climb over another barracade because the escalator was blocked off and the elevators don't seem to be working. Anyway, it was definetly a deader and Jeff aims at it to shoot it. Hell, he nailed the thing right in the head and killed it. We get ready to gather it up when we heard a noise.

"I motion for Jeff to stay behind me but he wouldn't listen. Well I motioned again and we found a small door behind a one hour photo place, that was where the noise was coming from. I go to kick the door in when all of a sudden this small frail old man comes jumping out and he starts to say something like 'Don't shoot!' but before he even said 'Don't' Jeff pops one right in his face. That's when we hear a woman scream and shes saying 'You shot him! You killed Bill! How could you you murderers!' and she just keeps it up. Vic and Drake are up there right now and Jake is talking to Jeff. He feels really guilty but it really isn't his fault. I think we need you to go talk to the guy." Mike said as he began to walk away.

"Wait, would you stay here with Rae please?" Hope asked him.

He nodded and sat at the foot of the bed.

"Where are they?" She asked.

"In some sporting goods store on the second floor." Mike said.

Hope began to rush to the nearest escalator and once there began the arduous task of climbing up a heap of debris that was littered across it. She made it and was met by Drake and a pretty young woman that was no more than eighteen if even that.

"You're looking for Jeff right? He's two stores down that way." Drake said lifting a thumb in the direction behind him.

Hope rushed to the store as fast as she could. Just before she reached the entrance she stopped wondering why she was so urgent to get there. As she walked in she saw Jake with an arm around Jeff's shoulder, Jeff sat in a slumped position.

"I didn't mean to...To kill that guy." Jeff mumbled quietly.

"I know, I heard everything. I'm so sorry." Hope said as she sat next to him trying her best to be sympathetic.

"Everything happened so quickly! It was all a blur and then POW! This old guy is lying dead at my feet and his wife is screaming at me trying to kill me. I'm a teacher! What was I thinking!" Jeff said and began to cry.

Hope and Drake held onto him for a few moments and then he pushed away from them. He looked at her with his tired brown eyes. They pleaded with her for something, anything to make the guilt go away.

"It's such a terrible thing, I took a man's life." Jeff moaned.

He suddenly grabbed the pistol that was tucked in Jake's belt loop and put it to his head. He looked into Hope's eye's again and pulled the trigger. There was a metallic click as the hammer hit. Nothing happened.

"I didn't load it yet."Jake said looking at Jeff with shocked by his suicide attempt.

Victor suddenly walked in and slapped Jeff briskly across the face. He looked angrily into the smaller man's eyes and then picked him up by the shirt collar and began to slap him again.

"You have no right! Taking your own life is not the way to deal with this! Snap out of it." He said and put the crying man down.

"If you want to die so badly do it on your own time. This very moment is no time to even be thinking about suicide. We need as many people as we can get and here you are trying to kill yourself over a mistake!" Victor looked at him and then at the others.

"Watch him for the next few days. If he looks like he's going to kill himself come and get me. We don't need this right now." He said and walked off.

( I know it's been a long wait, sorry for those that may have read this back when it was first started. I'm working on the next chapter right now and will have it out within a week or so. Thank you for being patient. Oh and there'll be some zombie stuff next time as well. )


	3. Chapter 3

(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Chapter 3 Conversation, Glen, Zombies

There were four other survivors besides Glen between the ages seventeen and sixty. Mary was the oldest, she was the one that had lost Bill. She was coming to the mall just as the city began to go downhill. She and Bill were living in the mall ever since.

Second oldest at forty-three was a security guard named Tyson, he was just coming into work when it all happened. He managed to find a safe haven for them inside the one hour photo shop on the second floor. It appeared that he had been a sort of leader to the others before Victor showed up and took over the duty.

Next was a fellow security guard, he was twenty-nine, his name was James. He was a small man with a weight problem. He had thin gold rimmed glasses and was always sweating. Hope took note of his jumpy paranoid like manner and decided that she and Rae Ann would keep away from him. Last in their group was seventeen year old Elisha, she was only a block away when all of it had happened and she barely made it inside the mall through the same back way that Victor and the others had.

That had also led to a problem with staying inside the mall. As it turned out, the mall was basically sealed off in every other place except a storage garage in the back and it was stuck open because of a truck that had crashed into it. From there was a narrow hallway that led into the back of several smaller hallways which in turn led to the back of several stores. In the newer peoples eyes it seemed like a maze.

When asked how nothing managed to get into the building Tyson replied, "Blind stupid luck.".

Victor decided that it would be best to try and block that one specific hallway and make sure nothing could get through it. It was the only weak spot in their makeshift fortress.

"Who wants to go out and explore this place?" Jake asked.

Hope and Rae Ann were sitting in their new home inside a furniture store on the second floor. They had made the back area of the store look as much like a home as they could, it even gave them the sense that it was a house.

Rae Ann started to recover and the infection in her leg was healing nicely. Hope saw that the little girl had even become more relaxed since they set up the furniture store. She knew that it was doing the little girl good to be able to sleep without worrying all night about the living dead. It was something no six year old should have to worry about. Hope often found herself wondering why the whole thing happened. She never fully tried to understand it though; She simply accepted it for what it was.

"We wouldn't mind taking a break from making this place look more like a house." She said smiling at Jake.

The three of them walked around the second floor of the mall looking through the stores. Rae Ann would periodically run up and down the left and right side of the building laughing all the while. Hope would feel slightly nervous each time the little girl did this and finally grabbed her by the hand and walked with her.

Then as they sat inside a food court restaurant Jake began to talk to her filling her in on what everyone else was planning to do for the time being.

"Victor wants to stay here for a few weeks and see what happens, he thinks it's still possible for the military to show up guns-a-blazing. To be honest, I don't think it's possible, but then again I don't have any children either so..." He trailed.

"How many children does he have?" She asked him.

"Two, they're both in their teens. He thinks the military might have saved them."

There was silence for a moment and then Hope looked Jake in the eyes.

"Did you have anyone before all of this happened?" Hope asked him.

He nodded and then went to the back of the counter and grabbed a can of cola that was in a small cooler. He reached in and grabbed two more and set them on the table. He opened his and took a large gulp before setting it down, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

"I had my mom, she was always fretting over me and asking me when I was going to get married and make her a grandmother. One day I went over to see her and she was in bed sick. She told me some crazed person tried to bite her arm off. She told me that there were a lot of crazy people out on the streets anymore. At first I laughed, but then a few days before town went to hell, she started to act strange herself. I looked down at her wound and saw that it had spread from her hand to her elbow. She was always moaning about how it hurt." He stopped and then put his head down and took a deep breath.

"Two days after the military made their sweep through, my mother passed away. I left her there in the house because everything was so hectic outside. I thought about burying her, but it made me feel disturbed. I mean who buries their own mother in her backyard? As I was getting ready to leave the city, she came into my room and attacked me. Came close to biting me once or twice and then I threw her off of me and she fell down the stairs and broke her neck. I remember crying over her dead body for awhile, it must have been loud too because that's when I met Hector, Jeff, and this guy named Robert." He stopped again and started to lose his composure.

Hope grabbed one of his hands and held it in her own. It was all she could really do at the moment. He lifted his head up and looked at her and continued.

"Anyway we never did tell you about Robert. He died about a day or two before we ran into you and Rae Ann. He was bitten and when I told him he was going to be one of those things, he had Hector shoot him. Hector didn't want to do it but he did do it. He often wondered if we should have just left him there." He stopped when he saw Rae Ann standing behind them.

Hope grabbed the little girl in her arms and opened the can of cola for her. The little girl took a sip and then spoke to them.

"My mommy and daddy told me not to answer the door for anybody, 'cause everyone was going looney. But then daddy started to act funny and mommy ended up getting bit by him. She told me to run and I did, I ran and hid in a garbage thing until Hope found me."

Both adults sat in stunned silence, it was shocking to hear the little girl talk about what had happened to her parents. Hope wanted to hold the little girl tighter and cry for her. All of it seemed so depressing.

"Maybe your mommy went to heaven like my parents did!" The girl suddenly said excitedly.

Jake smiled and cupped the little girl's chin.

"Maybe she did. Let's hope so kiddo." He said and got up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Hope asked him.

"I have to go and help the others block off the hallway that exposes us to the outside world. You guys should go and watch a DVD or something." He said and started to walk off.

Hope and Rae Ann walked off to find something to watch in the Sam Goody that was a few feet from the court. As they walked in that direction she glanced back in Jake's direction hoping that he'd be looking too. He stopped for a second and then looked back quickly and began to walk off towards the escalators.

Glen

Glen looked down at the bloody bandages that covered his once full left arm. He felt like killing the pricks that cut it off. He got up from his easy chair and walked up to the barred front entrance and shook it with his right hand. The back area was also blocked shut by something and he could here noises back there. Probably those zombies that they trapped a while back. He felt the urge to kick that door down and let them come flooding in. That would at least cause some of the new guys harm. He wanted so badly for one of them to be bitten (His mind wished for the older cop to get bit on the same arm.) and suffer as much as he did.

"I HAD A MUSIC CAREER YOU SONUVABITCHES!" He screamed through the bars.

He suddenly felt very weak, his stomach was growling. He hadn't touched any of the food that was given to him. He did find himself drinking from his water supply quiet frequently however, and that was fine by him.

He went to the back of the store kicking over a magazine rack as he walked past. He never deserved any of what was happening. It was that fat idiot James and Tysons fault he got bit. If they would've just listened to him and stayed in the one hour photo he would still be whole. No, Tyson had to get nosey and talk the fat man into going with. Hell, he even got coaxed into it.

"It might be the military." He mockingly said as he opened the door and walked in the back area.

He heard a gunshot the day before and knew one of his group died, he heard the old lady screaming out for Bill. Rest in peace old fart. He thought to himself as he put his ear to the door that led to the employees hallway. There was no noise at first but as he sat there and listened in silence he heard something shuffle his way.

There was a moan, or something close enough to a moan. The zombies weren't really able to fully moan anymore. They were beginning to rot worse and it was beginning to smell like rancid meat in a warm room. He clicked his fingernail against the wooden door and then put his ear back to it and listened. The moaning grew slightly louder. It was followed by another moan.

He smiled and then looked down at his stump. It was beginning to itch and even though he knew it was insane, it started to smell funny. Why they thought they could cut the infection from his body was beyond his comprehension. He was already wounded before they even walked in through that Sears store.

I'll get them, he thought as he went back to the easy chair and sat in it. He grabbed a bottle of water and started to drink heavily from it. I'll get them good, he thought as he pulled a blanket over his shaking body.

Hope

"I HAD A MUSIC CAREER YOU SONUVABITCHES!"

Hope looked down at Rae Ann and then continued walking to their little home inside of the furniture store. She knew the little girl would ask what was going on but had deep hope that she would just ignore it as she herself was trying to.

"What was that?" Rae Ann asked.

"That was Glen, he's very sick right now." She said in a motherly tone.

She sat the girl down and turned the movie on and then walked out to see what was going on. Besides herself, Rae Ann, Elisha, and Mary were the only other people in the general vicinity. She felt restless and decided to ask if Elisha would babysit Rae for her while she checked to see how the men were doing on the hallway.

She approached Elisha who was sitting behind a store counter flipping through an old catalogue. She had hazel eyes and reddish blonde hair. When she looked up at Hope, she smiled and then asked her what was up.

"Not much, I was just wondering if you could keep an eye on Rae for me while I go see if Vic and the others need help."

"Sure, it might do me some good to bond with her. I had a sister her age." Elisha said as she got up and walked to Hope's temporary home.

Hope walked on until she saw the hallway that Victor and the others went through. As she got closer she heard them working on making a barracade. It sounded as if they were building something big. As she approached them a loud noise boomed in the back of the hallway echoing off the walls.

"Hey, somethings not right." Jeff said.

They all looked up just in time to see a zombie walk into the storage garage that was mere feet away. Jeff backed away from it grabbing the nearest weapon, a screwdriver. As they watched, the dead thing shambled blindly into a shelf as another one walked in.

"We better kill those things before more of them get in." Tyson said.

They walked into the garage area each with a melee weapon. Drake was the only one with a gun. Hope watched as they attacked the zombies and killed them in mere seconds. They threw the bodies back out. It was while they were doing this that Mike noticed something bad.

"Hey look!" He yelled.

A huge old truck was speeding through the parking lot and it was heading towards the mall. Everyone ran towards the twisted up garage door and looked out to see what was going on. They all tried to see what the driver looked like inside of the truck but none of them could see inside of it. Then without warning it turned in their direction.

"Everyone get back inside now!" Victor yelled out.

It took all of six seconds for the truck to reach the garage door and the crashed remains of the other truck. Everyone ran towards the hallway in that time except for Hope and Jeff. In all of his amazement Jeff managed to get his shirt snagged up on a jagged piece of the garage door. Hope saw this and in a split second was tearing at it. She looked up just in time to see the truck ramble it's way up to them.

"It's a mail truck." She had time to mutter just before it smashed into the building just missing her by mere inches and smashing into Jeff throwing him like a rag doll.

She saw every little detail in three seconds time, the tearing and folding back of the garage door, the sparks flying in all directions. She even saw the zombie driver and it's living passenger as the truck slammed into the door. Glass flew in all directions, some cutting her badly on the right cheek below the eye.

Jeff, to her shocked dismay, was sent flying into a metal shelf on the other side of the garage, his snagged shirt ripped free from the garage door. She saw him fall into the shelf and then she saw nothing because she shut her eyes and began to scream. When she opened them Drake was standing beside her with his gun withdrawn.

"Get up now!" He screamed at her.

She looked behind him and saw three or four zombies stumbling out of the mail truck and into the garage. Drake shot and killed one of them. She started to run towards the hallway when she noticed something. There was gasoline spraying everywhere.

"Drake we have to get Jeff out of here." She said.

"He's dead, let's go!" Drake yelled back.

She looked over and saw that Jeff was moving slightly in his unconscious state. She grabbed him and tried to move him but he was too heavy. She heard another loud report as Drake killed another zombie. He was doused in gasoline now and She knew if he fired his gun that a spark from it could set him on fire. Worse, it could blow up this area and cause even more problems for anyone that survived.

"Don't shoot your gun anymore or you'll catch on fire!" She screamed as she began to drag Jeff towards the hallway.

Drake backed up as four more zombies entered the garage. Just then Mike came running in with a shotgun and lifted it to fire off a round. There was a loud blast as he pulled the trigger. To Hope and Drake's surprise nothing happened. A zombie fell to the ground, half of it's head was gone from the blast.

"Run!" He said as he pumped another round into the chamber of the shotgun.

Hope grabbed Jeff from underneath the arms and began to pull him slowly down the hall. Victor and Tyson both helped her lift him and carry him as fast as they could go. Sitting on a saw horse at the end of the hall was a machine gun that belonged to Mike, James saw it and grabbed it. He raced to Drake and Mike's side and lifted it to fire at the oncoming group of decaying, walking corpses.

Before anyone could say anything about it, he pulled the trigger and lost control of the gun. Bullets tumbled in the general direction of the zombies. One skipped off the ground and a spark struck the gasoline. Fire suddenly flew in all directions of the garage lapping up all of the gas that was on the ground. Drake had time to see it as it suddenly flew up in a huge ball and swallow the mail truck.

There was a huge explosion as the mail truck and several gas cans in the garage blew up. Shrapnel flew in all directions. The explosion itself knocked all three men over, setting Drake on fire. James, a split second before that, was hit in the left eye by a piece of metal. It tore open his eyelid and ripped into his eye. Mike, who was the closest, was knocked over and partially set on fire by the oncoming ball of flame and debris.

All three of them were hit by bits of metal and glass as it flew like a bunch of tiny bullets. Tyson who was farthest away, was hit in the upper left shoulder by a piece of glass. Only Victor, Hope, Jake, and Jeff were left untouched by the explosion.

The whole building was rocked by it and by the time Hope recovered from it, she saw Victor running to where Drake and Mike lay. He was putting them out with his shirt which he had ripped off. He managed to put Mike out and had started beating the fire off of Drake when a flaming Corpse walked into the hallway and attacked him. Victor pushed it back and grabbed Mike pulling him to his feet.

Tyson flew onto the scene putting Drake out as best as he could. He managed to drag him to his feet and began lifting him up by his belt loop. James sat in the corner of the hall screaming and holding the left side of his face. Blood was running down his hand and onto his shirt. Victor grabbed him and shoved him down the hall getting him out of harms way.

The flaming corpse suddenly lurched back into the hallway and grabbed hold of Victor's shoulder. It bit him on the upper part of his shoulder causing him to drop down on one knee. He grabbed it and pulled it off him.

"NO!" He screamed in rage.

He began to punch it in the face with everything he had. Blood poured out of his open wound in trickles. He hit the corpse hard in the face and was pulled off of it by Tyson, who shot it point blank with the shotgun Mike had moments before. They all stumbled out of the hallway and into the main mall area.

The zombies were now free to roam along in the bottom half of the mall. There was nothing standing in their way. As the others slowly made their way to the top of the escalator, a small group of the walking dead made their way inside.


	4. Chapter 4

(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Chapter 4 Injury, Death, Plans

Back when the world was right and the only thing anyone worried about was high gas prices, Elisha's parents were Veterinarians. They had a small but steady business on the east side of West Haven. It was their constant persuasion that got her into the family business, she herself had wanted nothing more than to be a fashion designer and had even went so far as to send out applications to many colleges that taught such things.

In the end however, she did end up working for them all summer, months before everything went downhill for mother earth. It was there that she learned how to stop bleeding and dress bad injuries. She also learned another very important thing while working there. She learned how to keep her cool while the animals nipped at her and yelped when being worked on. So when she saw the wounded people that had stumbled along she knew that she would be needed.

The first thing she did was send for Mary, because in her mind the little girl Rae Ann didn't need to see what was going on. Tyson was good enough to take Rae Ann and send her off with Mary to another part of the mall while Elisha and Jake patched up who they could with what little they had.

"What was all that noise downstairs?" She asked as they hurried to the food court.

"There was a mail truck, it crashed into the mall. It started shooting gas out everywhere and james accidently ignited it by shooting a gun." Jake said wearily.

They walked up to the first of several tables that were being lined up by Hope and Tyson. The first person to be layed down was Jeff, who looked almost dead. He was bleeding from the ears and nose badly and to Elisha it looked like he might have been worse off than the rest of them. She checked his pulse which was beating irradically and then she checked his eyes. Both pupils were dilated. She knew that he was either in deep shock or close to death. Examining his body, she found that he had multiple broken bones.

"Try not to panic." She said to herself as she moved to the next table.

Drake was moaning and she saw to her surprise that he was badly burned on most of his torso. She grabbed a pair of scissors and began to cut his shirt open. There were blisters and burns all over his chest as well as a few pieces of glass and metal. She pulled some of them out and began to put salve on as much of his chest as she could. She then began to put gauze on it and then instructed Jake to give him some painkillers.

Mike sat on a chair looking somewhat coherent and a little angry. She decided to check on James before she even had a look at him. Tyson suddenly stopped her.

"How do you know so much about this stuff?" He asked her suddenly.

"My parents worked as veterinarians, I know a little bit from that." She said and moved onto James who was still screaming.

She tried to move his hand away from his eye but he struggled against it. In the end she had Tyson hold him down and Jake pry it away from his face. Blood was coming out in slow gushes. She saw a piece of metal the size of a three year olds pinky sticking out of his left eye. She also saw that the eye lid was tore.

"This is going to hurt." She said and quickly yanked the piece of metal out.

James began to scream and thrash around for a few seconds and then went limp. She checked his pulse and found that his heart was still beating. She looked at the others and then began to bandage his eye as best as she could.

Hope began to wipe blood off of her wound as best as she could. When she managed to wipe enough away from her cheek, she put a bandage on it. She looked over at Elisha and felt somwhat envious that the girl was able to do something for the wounded people.

"I want to try and help." Hope said.

"Okay, could you look over Victor's wounds while I tend to Mike?" She asked.

Hope nodded and walked over to where Victor sat. She began to examine him and found the bite wound on his upper shoulder, just shy of his neck. They looked at each other and Hope knew what he was going to say.

"I was bitten." He said.

Hope felt a lump form in her throat and ignored him. She began to dress his wound when he shrugged her off. He stood up and looked at the others then walked over to the escalator. They all watched him quietly as he pulled out a handgun and checked it.

"I'm going back down there to finish some business. I won't be coming back up here. By the off chance one of you happens to venture down there and see me...well see me dead, kill me. I don't know how if I'll be able to do it myself." He said and then climbed the wall of debris.

Jeff suddenly began to have convulsions and gave a shallow breath dying from the injuries he sustained. Hope put a blanket over his dead body and began to cry as the others worked on each other. In the end there were only painkillers and penicillin left in the bag that Hope only filled the day before.

Everyone heard Victor shooting his gun downstairs, his war on the dead only lasted fifteen minutes and then everything went silent. Within two hours the whole building was filled with dreaded silence. No one said anything at all. Hope retreated to her little home and cried on her bed until Mary and Rae Ann showed up. Mary was also visible shaken by the incident and held Hope soothing her in a motherly tone until she managed to compose herself.

"Poor dears." Mary said as she sat up with Hope.

Finally off in the food court James began to sob loudly. He was crying about how he screwed up everything at first, then he cried about how badly his left eye hurt. Hope heard Tyson say something to him in a low murmur. Then there was silence again. even Rae Ann sat quietly on a chair holding her teddy bear and sucking her thumb.

Eventually it got dark outside and everyone that was still in good health tried their best to bed down. They decided it would be best to check on Drake every few hours and set up a watch for him. Elisha was the first one to watch out for him. Hope, Rae Ann, and the others all slept in the furniture store that night.

Glen

"So cold in here." Glen said through chattering teeth.

He got up and stumbled blindly to the gate that held him in the store. He looked out and saw the walking dead stumble around looking like confused drunks. He remembered hearing a loud boom, so loud that it shook the very mall in it's foundations. He let out a loud squeeky laugh and began to cough.

"Good for you damned losers!" He screamed out into the darkness.

His stump was beginning to ache badly, so badly that he thought it would drive him insane. But when it wasn't hurting he started to feel cold again. He walked up to the counter and began rummaging through it. As he sat there throwing things over it he found something that seemed to be of interest.

"Oh my God." He muttered as he put his hand over his face in disbelief.

Hidden behind a pile of old catalogues was a sawed off shotgun. He let out another laugh followed by a fit of coughing. He remembered that a friend of his, Eddie Howard, said he was going to sneak that old thing in and put it behind the counter. Glen never believed he would ever do such a thing, but to his surprise the gun sat there in the back of the counter. Glen picked it up and examined it. It was a double barrel sawed off shotgun.

He began to smile some more and then brought it up to the gate that was holding him inside of the store. He began to kneel down searching for the padlock that the others put on the latch and found it.

"There you are." He said gleefully.

He pointed the gun at the lock and curled his finger around one of the triggers. His vision was starting to fog up a little but he could still see well enough to shoot the lock off of the latch. He took aim and with a deep breath, squeezed the trigger.

There was a deafening roar followed by a loud clanking sound as the lock was ripped away from the latch. Glen still smiling lifted the gate up and ran clumsily out of the store into freedom. He saw several zombies staggering around in the mall. One of them to his surprise was the dork cop that chopped his arm off. He laughed as he saw the older man stumbling around lifelessly.

He gave a half hearted kick and planted his shoe firmly on the seat of the dead cops pants sending him forward and crashing hard into the tiled floor. That sent him into a fit of laughter which in turn gave him an idea. There was at least six more zombies locked in a closet in the back of the store he was just in. He went back and unlocked the door opening it slightly before running off.

"That'll teach you bastards to mess with me!" He yelled.

He began a slow decent up an escalator near the back to open an elevator. He wanted to lead the zombies into the upper floor and let them roam up there. It would be fun to watch as the survivors fought their way out of that kind of predicament. He made it up the escalator and was almost to an elevator when he heard someone behind him. Without looking to see who it was, he turned and fired his last round at the shadow.

Mary

Mary was having a dream, in it she and Bill were sitting at their table in their old home eating supper. Suddenly there was a loud boom, and Bill looked up at her. She smiled getting up from the table.

"I'll get it dear." She said.

Suddenly she was awake. She looked up and saw Hope and Tyson looking at her with concerned eyes. She sat up blinking and then looked around the room for a minute.

"Did the other one die?" She asked.

"No, we think Glen found a gun." Tyson said.

"Oh dear me, what are we going to do?" She asked.

"Well, I was going to take Mike and Jake and have a look around to make sure nothing is wrong up here. Hope here was wondering if you'd maybe stay here with the little one and watch her until we get back." He said.

She nodded and then got up to go be with Rae Ann. As she sat down at the foot of her bed Mike walked up to her and handed her a gun.

"Oh Heavens no, I couldn't shoot it." She said looking at it uneasily.

"I think it would be best if you took it ma'am. Glen might come here and try to do something. I'm not saying he's the one that fired off a round, but it is a possibility. After all he was doing a lot of hollering down there." Mike said.

Mary grabbed the gun and then put it on a bedstand. She watched as the others left and then sat back down at the foot of the little girls bed. She had an uneasy feeling all of a sudden. She kept glancing out into the dimly lit hall at every noise.

"Don't be so jumpy." A voice said.

Mary, startled, turned to see where it came from. Drake lay in a bed near the front of the store. He was all bandaged up and in pain but aside from that he was okay. She walked over to where he was sitting and got him some water. He drank from a bottle she handed him and then handed it back to her.

"I'm still here, you don't have to worry." He slurred.

Since that afternoon they kept him heavily medicated with painkillers. Earlier he had been in severe pain and almost went into shock. He seemed somewhat better now that he was high. She brushed his hair back from his brow and then put a cool rag on his forehead.

"I'm a cop, or I used to be until all this happened." He said.

She looked into his half open eyes and saw sadness behind them. Somewhere close by James moaned in his sleep.

"Do you want to hear something?" He asked her.

"Sure." She said quietly.

"I had a beautiful girlfriend and when she was being attacked by those things, I ran like a coward." He whispered.

A single tear fell from his eye and he swallowed hard. She could tell that he wanted to tell her more but he hesitated at first. She patted him on the head and then he looked at her.

"If it wasn't for Victor I'd be dead right now. Only he wasn't known as Victor when we were on the force. He was called Seargent Mears. He and Kenny found me and Mike over at that road block on fifth street. Remember? It was all over the radio and the news. It was an attempt to hold off those creatures. They kept coming though, one right after the other. Then Vic and Kenny grabbed me and Mike and we all ran back to the precinct. Hid there for a few weeks, only going out to get food." He muttered.

She got up and checked on Rae Ann, who was still sleeping soundly. Then she went back to check on Elisha, who was laying on a recliner chair. Mary put a comforter over the girl and then went back to look in on Drake. She saw that his handsome face was unscarred by the fire that had burned some of his upper body. He was passed out again, probably nodded off from all the pills he was given.

She heard someone comimg down the hall and peeked out just in time to see a shadowy figure walk off towards the food court. Must be Tyson, she thought as she went back to the little girl and sat in a chair near her bed. Suddenly she heard a loud pop, followed by a murmur. There was silence then a loud booming laughter. It chilled her bones to hear such laughter and she recognized who it belonged to. Glen was out after all.

"Someone has to talk some sense into that man." She said to herself and got up.

She saw him working on unjamming the elevator that was near the food court and approached him. His back was turned to her and she could see with mild surprise that he now had a stump where his left arm once was. They really did cut his arm off, she thought.

Lying on the ground not four feet away from Glen, was the body of Jeff. The school teacher that shot her poor husband Bill in the head. The thought never occured to her that anyone could turn into one of those things that walked a floor below. At least anyone that hasn't suffered any serious head injuries and most of Jeff's appeared to be from his torso.

"Young man this crap is going to stop!" She said.

He jumped and turned around and she felt chills suddenly sweep up her spine. Glen looked nothing like the man she had been around the last few weeks. That Glen was healthy and full of color. This Glen, was pale with dark circles under his eyes.

His eyes.

She saw that they had mild cataracts over them. He looked as if he were dying right before her own eyes and suddenly fear tightened it's grip over her. He looked at her for a second and then fell to his knees and started to cry.

"Mary, look what they did to me! They cut off my arm!" He wailed.

She could hear Tyson and the others approaching her and she felt relieved. She backed away from Glen until her lower back felt the guard rail. She took a look behind her and saw the lower level of the mall. There were a dozen zombies stumbling to and fro down there.

"What in heavens name..." She trailed.

Glen suddenly stood up and smiled until all of his teeth seemed to jut out from his mouth. She saw a look of insanity in this smile and she knew that he was going to do something bad. She put a hand over her mouth as he got closer to her. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Jake running but couldn't tell how close he was.

"Mary, Mary, Mary..." Glen tisked.

Suddenly without any warning she saw the ceiling and then felt herself falling. It wasn't a long fall, but very short. She didn't feel her head when it slammed into the tile on the first floor. Nor did she feel it as her spine snapped in several places even though she was still alive. She stared at the ceiling that seemed to be miles away. Her vision started to grow dim and as she felt her chest start to hitch, her confused mind gave her one complete thought before she died.

I'll get the door Bill, you just finish up your dinner.

Hope

They all saw Glen push Mary off the railing. Hope let out a scream as she heard the old ladies bones snap. She looked down over the railing and saw Mary laying in a slowly forming pool of blood staring lifelessly up at the ceiling. Jake and Tyson were chasing Glen.

"Get that bastard!" Tyson screamed.

Jake held up the shotgun and fired a round off catching Glen in the lower right calf. Hope watched as he howled and fell to the ground twisting up in a ball of pain. He was roughly ten feet from where they stood and even from that distance he smelled of decay.

"Do you guys smell that?" Jake said as they approached him.

"Son of a bitch is still infected isn't he." Tyson said and walked over to where he lay.

Glen was shuddering and his stomach was tensing up and then relaxing over and over. His breathing was becoming shallow, and his body looked rigid. Hope knew that he was becoming one of the living dead and felt very fearful.

"Someone should shoot him before he gets the chance to change completely." Mike said.

Tyson nodded and grabbed his handgun placed it to Glen's head and pulled the trigger. There was a loud POP as the gun went off and Glen stopped moving altogether. They grabbed his body and threw it over the railing where it landed near a fountain with a loud thud. Several zombies walked to where it lay and began feasting on it.

Tyson looked at the others and then down over the railing at the living dead that was slowly populating the mall. He walked off towards the food court and sat in a chair. He looked as if he were ready to give up. When Hope and the others approached him, he tried wave them off. When he saw that they wouldn't leave he looked up at them and spoke.

"How many of you honestly think we still have a chance staying in this place?"

None of them answered.

"I have to say if we do, it's a very slim one. I don't want to die in a place like this... not in a place like this." He said and slammed his dark fist into the table.

"What should we do?" Mike asked.

Tyson looked up at him and then ran a hand along his bald head. He let his shoulders slump and then he looked down at the ground. For a moment it looked like he was going to just stop talking altogether but then he spoke again.

"I think we should try to leave the city and make a run for the mountains." He said.

"The mountains?" Jake asked.

"Well, yeah man, look at it this way. Do you think those clumsy ass things can climb up a steep route? Well, I'd imagine some of them might be able to do it, but a lot of them would probably just end up fallling all over the place. Plus there ain't that much out there, it's less populated and there might even be a cabin or something for us to stay." He began to say.

"How do we get out of this city though, I mean we are damn near in the middle of it and that is one hell of a long walk out." Mike countered.

"We just try to be careful I guess. I don't know, what do I look like Mr. Wizard?!" He grumbled.

"We have to get supplies first, canned goods, and water should be our first concern." Hope spoke up.

They all looked at her and then back to Tyson.

"Yeah, water and food, what else? Anyone?" He asked.

"Well if we're going to the mountains, maybe some tents if we can't find a cabin out there?" Jake said.

"I can't believe you idiots want to risk trying to leave this city! How many people do you think died trying to attempt the same thing all of you want to do?!" Mike said angrily.

"Hey, I'd rather die trying to get out of this place then wait around to become one of those things down there." Tyson said pointing towards the lower floor.

"What about Drake? You can't just move him around, besides the poor bastard is so out of it he wouldn't even be much help." Mike said.

"Doesn't look like he's going to be much help anyway considering his condition." Tyson said.

"Why fight against this? We should all be in this together Mike, besides we need everyone. If you haven't noticed we've lost three good people in the span of twenty four hours." Hope reasoned.

Mike suddenly began to think about it and after a minute or two of thinking, he spoke.

"If you guys can plan this out good enough, then I'll go with you." He said.

"Okay we will, starting tomorrow morning." Tyson said.

Deep inside, Hope felt a little better. At least we're going to attempt to escape this hell hole, she thought. They all walked back to the furniture store, Tyson waking Elisha up to fill her in on what happened while she was sleeping. When he suggested that they leave for the mountains she agreed that it would be best and then went to tend to Drake and check on James.

Down below them more zombies began to walk into the mall. Out back near the garage the fire was almost completely out. More out of luck than anything else. As Hope lay next to Rae Ann she began to wonder how many of them were in the mall. Twenty? Thirty? Maybe more. She knew that tomorrow there would be more making their chances at escaping the mall just as slim as escaping the city. She closed her eyes and fell asleep thinking about this.


	5. Chapter 5

(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Chapter 5 Food, Moving, Crash

"Two shotguns, one machine gun, and three handguns left. That's it." Tyson said to Jake and Elisha as they walked over to the food court to gather food for their escape.

"What about ammo?" Jake asked.

"Luckily there are five clips of ammo for the handguns. There are only thirteen shells for the shotguns, and the machine gun has half a magazine left. It was a thirty round clip." He replied.

They walked into the first food stand and started searching for canned goods. As they grabbed what they could, they continued talking.

"What about that ax?" Elisha asked.

"Victor left it in the room he cut Glen's arm off. If you want to risk your life trying to get it, your more than welcome." Tyson said.

They moved onto the next food place and started rummaging through it. Jake looked out into the main hall and then focused back on the task at hand. There were zombies almost everywhere now. He wondered how they were going to escape the mall.

"What about our escape? We aren't exactly free to roam this place anymore." Jake said.

"I'm working on that. It's hard trying to come up with a way to escape this place." Tyson muttered.

They moved onto the next stand and began to grab what they could at a faster pace. It was all coming to a close, this twenty four hour paradise. They grabbed things that could be used putting them in boxes and bags. Elisha began labeling things as they packed.

Down below the zombie population began to increase heavily. Where there were once roughly twenty or thirty there were now hundreds. They could be heard, seen, and smelt all throughout the mall. Tyson also noticed that some of them made their way towards the escalators and began trying to climb them.

"We're running out of time here. We got to do something soon or those things'll be chewing on our asses and I don't want that." He said as he began to haul a box of food towards their living quarters.

Hope was walking towards a Sports and Hunting supplies store in search of tents and other outdoors survival things. She began to dig around and managed to find two bows and several quivers of arrows, a hatchet, and four good sized tents as well as several cots. She was thinking about grabbing a knife she saw in a display case when Mike walked in.

"Need any help?" He asked her.

She saw how weary he looked and nodded. He began to grab the tents resting them on his shoulder. Mike looked down at the bandage on his arm, it was from the explosion. He began to haul the tents out of the store and down to the living area. Hope followed behind him with the bows and arrows.

"You know, we are going to die if we do this and that is something I don't want. I hate this world right now more than anything else. But I value my life and the lives of those who have managed to survive this hellish nightmare." He said as he walked his steady slightly hunched walk towards their destination.

"You want to hear something weird?" He asked her.

"Sure if you want to tell me something weird." She said.

"I was going to quit the force, I didn't like the idea of carrying a gun around. I mean sure I seem tough and mean all the time. It's actually a ruse, I don't like violence. In reality I just want to live my life in peace and quiet. I was planning on maybe getting a farm. My dad was a farmer and some of my best memories were helping him with the chores around the farm." He suddenly stopped and smiled at her.

"Your an okay person. You actually hear out other peoples problems. I might have fell for a girl like you when I was younger." He said and continued to walk on.

She stopped for a minute and watched him as he carried the luggage. He was more thoughtful than she originally pinned him to be. She felt a little guilt for putting him in the arm lock she had him in back at the hospital. She sighed and looked down at her feet.

That felt like years since they all met at that place. Now Victor was dead and Drake was being kept stoned because of his burns. She felt saddened by this but then she thought of Rae Ann and felt a shimmer of hope shine through.

"I think we're going to make it." She said to herself as she hauled the bows and arrows back to her living space.

They managed get more supplies than any of them thought possible and were left with only one last problem. Actually leaving the mall itself. There were dead things wandering all around the mall and the surrounding area which made just walking down to the parking lot and grabbing the nearest car impossible. They sat at the food court for hours trying to come up with a way to escape when Jake came up with an idea.

"Someone can draw them away from the front doors while the others run to the van. Then when everyone is safe and secure the driver can pick up the person that is drawing the zombies away." He said.

"Boy are you out of your damn mind!?" Tyson said.

"Come on, I know this can work. The problem is finding someone crazy enough to do it." Jake said.

"No I don't think anyone should try and risk their life over this." Hope said.

"But we're already risking our lives just trying to leave this place." Jake argued.

"He's right, I think I know how to get their attention too." Mike said.

They all turned and saw him standing near a booth eating from a can of sliced pineapple. He was smiling again and for the first time everyone noticed that he was getting involved with the group. He wasn't being the bad guy for once and that was a start to getting away from the city.

"How would one go about distracting those things. I'm a bit curious to hear this part." Tyson said.

"That's easy, someone climbs down from the ladder on the roof and runs through parking lot. We'll have to haul everything up to the roof and haul all of it down by rope. Hell I'll even supply the gun and the two extra clips I have for the person that's crazy enough to be the bait." He said.

"You've been hiding ammo from us?" Tyson said angrily.

"Let's not lose our heads over this now." Hope said.

"Yeah besides, isn't it a good thing that there is actually more ammo than we originally thought?" Jake asked.

Tyson glared at Mike and then put his head down. Elisha looked at the group of people she was just starting to know and then up at the sky light that was above them. Several birds flew by and suddenly she spoke up.

"Well who is going to volunteer for distracting those nasty things?"

"I will." Jake said.

Everyone looked over at him with surprise. Hope stood up from the chair she was sitting in and walked to where he sat.

"Jake no! I won't let you do it. This is a stupid idea. We don't know if this will even work." She said.

"It will work." Jake said.

"The kid's right. Most of them will see him or smell him and go after him. You don't have anything to worry about either because they're all clumsy bastards." Mike said.

He was digging into a side pouch on his belt. From it he produced two clips of ammunition and he handed them to Jake. Jake took them and grabbed one of the handguns that sat on the table. He looked over at the group and then at Hope and began to walk towards the roof exit.

"Jake no! Please don't do this." Hope pleaded knowing it was useless to argue.

"Well don't just sit there, everyone get what you need to get so we can get the hell out of this place." Jake said.

Tyson and the rest of them stood up and began to frantically run around looking for things to take with them. Mike walked up to Jake and patted him on the shoulder. He then took the clip from his own handgun and handed it to him.

"Just in case you need more ammo." Mike said and went with the others to gather what they needed.

They collected all of the boxes and bags in fifteen minutes time and then began lowering the stuff to the ground amidst the hordes of zombies. Jake was scouting the area looking for a place to run and climb. He spotted a semi truck towards the center of the parking lot and decided that he just run to that and climb to the trailer that was hooked to it.

Hope tried three more times to stop him from doing this but he wouldn't listen to her. It hurt him to see how she glared at him, but in the end it would work. He knew it deep down in his bones. And if he survived this thing he would ask her out on a date when they got to safety.

"Well, are you ready?" Tyson asked.

"Yeah, just give me one more minute and I'll be on my way." He said and walked over to Hope and Rae Ann.

"I just want you two to know that your like a family to me. We've been through a lot, the three of us." He said.

Rae Ann hugged him and looked up at him curiously.

"Are you going to talk to them Jake?" She asked him.

He smiled and shook his head.

"No, I'm going to make them follow me to that truck over there and then you guys are going to go down this ladder and get into the van, pick me up and we're all going to leave the city. Does that sound like a good deal?" He asked her.

She stood there with a thoughtful expression on her face and then she looked up at him and smiled.

"I suppose so." She said.

Hope grabbed the little girls hand and began to walk back to the rest of the group. Jake reached for her but she shrugged away from him. He reached for her again and this time she turned around and kissed him firmly on the lips.

"Please don't let them bite you. Make it back to me. Make it back to Rae. Promise me that nothing will happen to you." She said.

He looked at her still shocked from the kiss and then blushed a little. Further away Tyson was smiling and Mike was giving Jake a thumbs up. He looked at her again studying her pretty face and then he spoke.

"I promise I'll make it back to the two of you." He said.

The ladder stopped at another section of the roof and led to two dumpsters. He climbed down and then jumped on the two dumpsters. When he touched ground the zombies looked his way and started to follow him.

"HEY YOU DUMB BASTARDS COME AND GET ME!" He yelled.

They all began to look in his direction slowly. Some of them began to walk towards him. He ran past a fat one with a butcher knife sticking out of it's neck. As he ran they began to close in on him. Most of them were near the mall but there were still quite a few in the lot itself.

Jake ducked under a tall zombie's grasp. It was wearing a jersey and baggy shorts. Most of it's neck was missing. He dodged zombies that were once clerks and teachers and little children. Twice he recognized some of them. One was a guy he used to work with, the other was one of his friends.

As he neared the semi truck the began to get too close to him. He lifted the gun and fired it into the decaying face of a man in a business suit. His dried out brain hit the side of the truck he was trying to escape to. He watched as it fell to the ground in a heap.

He felt something tug at the jacket he was wearing so he slipped out of it and began to climb up the front end of the truck. A hand grasped his ankle, while another caught hold of his shoe. Then another grabbed his calf. He could feel them dragging him off of the truck. He kicked wildly with his other leg in hopes of knocking them back.

He raised the gun and fired a round into the decayed face of a teen. He let off a few more rounds and was free from the walking dead. He started his climb again when he felt something like a pinch on his calf. He screamed and turned to see another deadling biting down on his leg. He shot it before it could bite hard enough to actually do any damage and he thanked his lucky stars that it didn't do any damage to him whatsoever.

As he climbed to the top of the trailer and laid down, he heard a gun shot ring out over the parking lot. He looked over and saw the others getting into the van and then he saw Tyson, James, and Mike getting into a suburban. It looked like everything was going to work out after all. He thought to himself.

The suburban slammed into the dead bodies surrounding the semi truck and Jake was forced to hang onto the roof until they got a safe distance away. They weaved through two blocks filled with wrecked vehicles and other debris that was out in the road. The van was in the lead driving as fast as it could go in the cramped streets.

"I wish there was some way we could stop and make a plan on how to get the hell out of here." Tyson muttered.

Suddenly the van began to pick up speed and they were driving at a decent pace. The blocks were beginning to blur as they drove past. Jake looked at the speedometer and saw that they were doing sixty miles and hour. He began to laugh.

"What's so funny?" Mike asked.

"We're doing sixty in a fifteen zone." He said.

They all chuckled at that. Even James, who was still in pain managed to crack a smile as he lay in the back with the tents and other things. He felt a tear sting his good eye and realized that he was crying. He killed Victor. No one blamed him for this but it was still true. He killed victor and wounded almost everyone else.

He looked at the handgun that was sticking out of Mikes holster. He grabbed it and held it to his head. Mike and Jake looked at him in shock.

"What are you doing man!?" Jake screamed out.

"I can't live with this anymore. I killed that guy Victor! If I would have just let you guys handle the situation everyone would be okay." He wailed.

"Look, you need to chill out and hand me the gun." Mike said.

"No, I can't. My head hurts to bad all the time. I need to do this in order to stop feeling the pain." He cried out.

"Just give me the gun." Mike said calmly.

"What the fuck is going on back there?" Tyson yelled.

Mike lunged for the gun a split second before it went off. What happened next caused them to wreck. The bullet traveled into the air and struck the roof of the suburban ricocheting into the front end of the vehicle. It bounced from their into Tyson's right forearm. He let go of the steering wheel and grabbed his arm screaming from the pain.

The Suburban hit the corner of an upturned ice cream truck and was sent flipping onto it's side. It tumbled three times and then slid on it's roof for twenty feet. It crashed into a video store. The van continued it's course through the city without realizing that Tyson and the others wrecked.


	6. Chapter 6

(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Chapter 6 Wrecked, Search, Zombies

_He stood inside the room and looked at his mother. Her health had declined since she came home with the bite on her arm. He looked at his watch and saw she was only bitten around three hours before. He felt her forehead and was shocked at how hot she had grown in the last hour. He was beginning to worry about it._

_Jake walked downstairs to the living room and turned the T.V on as a distraction for what was going on upstairs. There were rumors going around lately, rumors of people being bitten by other people and...He suddenly stopped thinking because of a scene he saw on the television. It was the very town he was living in. There were roadblocks and cops lined up against them. A News reporter was shouting into a microphone about how they had to start barricading certain areas of the city until the military came to rescue them._

_Then the screen got fuzzy and the camera was knocked down. He could see the street at an angle from the ground and quickly shut it off. There was too much carnage in the brief seconds he was watching. He walked back up the stairs with a cool washcloth to put on his mothers forehead when he heard the gunshots outside. Maybe two blocks away, maybe less than that. _

_"So this is how it's going to end..." He said to himself._

_He went into his mothers room and was shocked to see she had partially fell from her bed and her face was on the floor. He raced to where she laid and picked her up checking for a pulse. He panicked as he searched desperately for and could find, no pulse. Tears began to sting his eyes as he realized she was dead. He held her close to him and began to cry._

"Please don't be dead..." He muttered.

"Jake! Come on get up man!" Mike said.

"I think we should jus' drag him outta here!" Tyson said.

Jake opened his left eye and looked around. Their vehicle managed to slam into a building and was sticking partially out of it. He tried to open his right eye but it was stuck shut. He grabbed Mike's shoulder and pulled himself to his feet. He felt a wave of dizziness and almost fell over. He tried to open his right eye again and with some effort managed to open it slightly. He touched it and found some drying blood on it.

"Hurts like a bitch." He muttered and began to rummage through the wreckage for supplies.

He grabbed a tent and a hiking bag loaded with food and started to go out of the hole in the building when Tyson stopped him.

"Not out that way!" He almost whispered.

Outside was a growing crowd of dead people wandering towards the store they were standing in. Tyson was walking towards the 'employees only' door. Jake followed behind Mike and as they went in he suddenly realized James was missing.

"Where's James at?" He asked Tyson.

"He's aroun'. He said he would wait out back, the miserable little..." Tyson grunted.

There was blood coming out of his forearm in a steady little trickle. It looked like maybe it was just a flesh wound and Jake was slightly relieved. They stepped out into an alley and saw James standing near a dumpster. He was looking at something near a fence. Jake walked over to where he was and then jumped back.

There was a torso with a head still attached to it lying in a mud puddle. It looked up at them with curious eyes and then opened it's mouth to reveal several teeth still in it's head. James turned to look at Jake and the others and then back at the torso.

"I'm so sorry for being such a miserable bastard. I lost your gun and a lot of the supplies were ruined because of me. I guess I just wanted to be cool and skinny. Not fat and nerdy. I have nothing to look forward to. I lost an eye, I got a cop killed, I even got us into a wreck that thankfully nobody died in. Just leave me here. Let this thing bite me." He said and began to cry.

Jake opened his mouth but was cut off by Tyson.

"Look you ungrateful piece of shit, whether you believe this or not is up to you. We need you. We're greater in numbers, stronger. If we lose someone than we falter. Look how many people we lost already. You want those people to have died in vain for what we' tryin' to do?" Tyson said.

James shuddered and then looked up at the others. He tried to smile but was too shaken to do so. He started to say something and then just slumped his shoulders forward. He looked down at his pudgy hands and then back up at the others again.

"I-I'm done feeling sorry for myself." He said and began to walk with the others.

He stopped and turned back towards the torso, it started to roll towards him. He let it, as if mesmerized by it. It opened it's mouth to bite him when he thought better of it and slammed his foot into it's head. It's skull shattered and it stopped rolling towards him.

"So what's the plan fearless leader?" Mike asked Tyson who was wrapping his wounded arm.

He shrugged and then began to walk in the direction that led to the last place they saw the van. They walked through the alley as quietly as possible looking over their shoulders every once in a while. They made it three blocks before they stopped.

"I don't know what to do now." Tyson said.

"We have to do something, we can't just stand here and hope for the best. Besides those things are grouping up around us. Haven't you noticed?" Mike said. He pointed in three different areas.

"I don't like this one bit. We have to get moving faster. We have five shotgun shells and one clip of ammo for that pistol. No way in hell would we make it out if we had to fight our way out of this little alley." Mike added.

All around them the zombies began to lurch forward forming a rough circle that expanded a two block radius. It could have been from sound, smell, or even body heat. Whatever it was, it caused the dead to know where everyone was. Tyson didn't know how it was so, it just was.

"We are gonna have to fight. They circled us already." He said.

"Take out the ones that get too close. I'll do the same with the handgun." Mike said.

Jake grabbed a piece of wood that was discarded near a dumpster. He clutched it tightly in his right hand and said a silent prayer hoping they would make it out in one piece. James rooted around in the dumpster and found a handful of soup cans that were unopened. He grabbed them and began pitching them at the stragglers hoping to knock one over.

A female one stumbled the closest to them and was hit over the head with a soup can. It fell backwards and sent two more sprawling on their backs as well. Jake felt relief.

"How many more cans do you have?" He asked James.

"Seven."

"If it gets up, throw another one as hard as you can and maybe with some luck it'll die!" Jake said.

"Tyson here!" Jake said and threw a soup can at Tyson.

He caught it and whipped it with great speed and accuracy into the forehead of a thin zombie. It was struck so hard that it's skull literally cracked open and it fell on it's face. He reached for another can and threw it with that same amazing speed and strength this time hitting a child zombie. It fell forward and died.

"This is working out just fine for now!" He said and hurled one more can.

Mike was looking around for a way out of their predicament and saw it much to his surprise. He walked up to a wooden door that was painted green and began kicking it with everything he had. James saw this and began to help. It gave way.

"Let's get moving!" Mike screamed.

They stepped into the kitchen area of a restaurant and began to look for a way out. As they were leaving James grabbed a rusty meat cleaver that was on a cutting board next to a piece of rotten meat. Mike pushed the door to the dining area opened and then stopped and let out a curse.

They walked right into a room filled with zombies.

"Get moving cause here they come!" Tyson said from somewhere in the kitchen.

"Ahh man, it's too late!" Mike said back.

With that he took careful aim at the nearest one and pulled the trigger.

Hope and the others were seven blocks away when they realized that the suburban was no longer behind them. She was so focused on the escape that she never once looked back to see how the others were. It was actually Rae Ann that spoke up.

"Hope, the other truck isn't here anymore." She said.

"What!" She said and looked in the rear view mirror.

There was a littered street and nothing more. Not even so much as a dead person stumbling around. Elisha stopped the van and then turned it around. She looked over at Hope and then at the road they had just traveled.

"Do we go back?" She asked Hope.

"Yeah, we can't just keep going, what if something happened to them?" She said.

They drove down the road in search for the missing vehicle and got three blocks down when they heard the shots. Three timed shots went off somewhere near by.

"Sounded like it was about a block away." Drake mumbled from the backseat.

Elisha began to grip the steering wheel tightly and then drove on. What they saw next shocked all of them. There was a horde of the living dead walking towards a restaurant. There were already some flocked inside the door way and even more inside as far as Hope and the others could see.

"Oh God please no." Hope said sharply.

Drake sat up and cocked the machine gun he was holding.

"Stop the van right here and then drive back about a block. I'll try to rescue the others. Oh and Elisha, give me the shotgun you have and all of the shells." He said.

"Drake no! You can't do this!" Hope said.

He waved a hand at her in annoyance and then grabbed the shotgun and the five shells they took from the original thirteen. He looked at them and smiled for the first time in days and then opened the door. He looked back once at the little girl and handed her something then walked off. Elisha backed the van up and began to drive it down a block.

When they stopped Elisha hugged Hope and Rae tightly. They all began to shudder as they heard the gun going off knowing that Drake was firing down on the living dead.

"Was that gun fire?" Tyson asked as he raised the shotgun.

"Yeah from outside! They had to have found us!" Jake said.

Suddenly James let out a scream and began to run forward into the mass of living dead. He swung the rusty cleaver and hit a female deadite in the head embedding the blade deep inside. He pulled it out and began to swing wildly in the general direction of the dead. The blade sunk into the arm of another dead thing almost severing it. He could feel the pounding in his head and the ache in his left eye yet he managed to keep swinging. Then a large male tackled him and bit him on the bridge of the nose.

He screamed as he heard the teeth sink into his nose. He could feel the cartilage crack and rip away from his face. Fresh blood squirted in all directions and got in his good eye. His vision began to cloud a little and yet he still kept fighting.

Tyson ran across the dining room with Jake and Mike close behind. He was trying to think of a way to get through the door when a wooden stick flew past his ear and smashed into the large window in front of the restaurant. The window shattered and fell to the sidewalk in small pieces. Mike spared one look back and saw James getting up still swinging the meat cleaver around. Blood poured out of a gaping hole where his nose used to be. He looked at the others and began running towards them.

"I'll kill you!" He screamed.

Tyson turned around and fired a shotgun shell into his face tearing flesh and bone away. James' dead body fell to the floor and the zombies began to feast on it. Tyson had time to think that it was a sad way to go before jumping out the window and into a group of zombies that were waiting outside to get in.

He fired off a round into the face of the mayor of the city some of the shot actually maimed another one that was standing next to it. On the other side of the crowd Drake fired three rounds into a zombie and watched it fall to the ground. He lifted his gun and fired another round into the head of a goth kid.

"Mike are you guys okay!?" He hollered.

"Yeah we're trying to get through this man!" Mike yelled back.

This gave Drake a newfound strength and he fired off as many rounds as he had into the crowd of dead. When his machine gun was empty he threw it down and lifted the shotgun. He fired a round into the crowd and watched as several of them fell over from the powerful blast. It gave him an idea and he fired another round into the crowd.

Tyson fired a round into one as well and saw the same thing happen. He started to run and tripped over one of the bodies almost falling over. Mike reached out just in time and caught him by the collar of his shirt. Then Mike slipped on a body and fell backward landing in front of the shattered remains of the window severing his right pinky.

"Holy Shit!" He screamed out and grabbed his hand.

Jake grabbed him and hauled him to his feet and began to run after Tyson who had already made his way through the crowd and was running to Drake. Mike looked down once and saw his little finger lying on the sidewalk slightly twitching. Then he looked up and saw a zombie lurching his head at Jake. He had time to throw Jake out of the way. A split second later the zombie sunk it's teeth into his forearm.

Jake grabbed him and they ran together to the others. They managed to make it to Drake and Tyson who were both panting and shaking. Drake pointed a block down the road to the van and they all began to run to it at a slow pace. When they approached it Mike stopped them.

"Dammit, I wanted to stay inside that mall!" He said.

Tears began to form in his eyes and they all saw the wound in his forearm.

"Oh man, I'm sorry." Tyson said.

"What are you going to do?" Hope asked him. She herself was nearing tears.

"Just leave me here. I don't want to die, not by a gun anyway. Who knows, maybe it's not as bad as it looks." He said and began to chuckle bitterly.

Drake put his hand on Mike's shoulder and then gave him a rough hug. Tears stood out in his eyes as he stepped back in the van. They all shook his hand or hugged him and then piled into the van. He watched them go and walked to a house near the area.

He bandaged his hand and arm up and then went through the cupboards. He found a box of cookies and opened them digging one out. He ate it slowly and listened to the living dead as they surrounded the house. There was a time when he would have given anything to be with his family, his mom and dad. His girlfriend and his daughter. He put his head down and began to weep as the living dead began to pound on the door.

All of them except his daughter and girlfriend were dead. Those two might very well have gotten out of the city before it got bad. He felt the wound in his arm began to ache. It was intensifying by the minute.

"Okay, I guess if I'm going out, I'm going out fighting." He said and grabbed a large knife from the knife wrack that hung in the kitchen.

Mike opened the door and let the hoard inside.


	7. Chapter 7

(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Chapter 7 Leaving, Outpost, Showdown

"I don't believe this. Look at that!" Elisha said.

Hope looked at it and almost couldn't believe it herself, yet there it was spread out in front of them as far as the eye could see.

"How many do you think there are?" Jake asked her.

"Thousands?" was her only reply.

They were near the outskirts of the city near what seemed like an endless amount of cars, trucks and other vehicles. They clogged the very route out of the city and even the surrounding areas, such as the sidewalks and ditches. Every now and then they would see the remains of some poor soul that tried to get away. Once they even managed to see one of the bus's that were supposed to usher people to safety. It was empty, it's door hung open slightly.

Drake was in and out of sleep and often groaned as he laid in the back as best as he could. Elisha stopped once shortly after they left Mike, so she could change his bandages. Jake had taken the wheel by then and what she saw worried her. His wounds were looking infected. She didn't know if she should tell the others just yet or give him penicillin for a few days and wait.

As they drove on he woke up and grabbed her by the arm squeezing it gently. She looked over to him and he lifted his head up to her and spoke near her ear.

"I thought I was going to die back there so I gave the little girl my locket. It has a picture of my girlfriend in it. We were going to get married. I just wanted to tell you that you remind me of her." He said.

She looked into his eyes and saw tears in them, as well as a deep hurt look in them. Her heart pounded slightly when he spoke to her. She never really had a chance to date that much back when the world was sane and safe. Her parents rarely allowed her to even go to dances and the one boyfriend she actually liked had moved away. Drake made her feel the same way that he made her feel.

"I know, you told me that on the day you almost got killed..." She trailed.

Her thoughts raced to the day he was burned, no one else except for Mike and Victor, knew that they had walked up to the roof to see how many zombies were around. She remembered the heat of the sun as it shined down on them. The smell of decay that everyone had gotten used to over the weeks, had been wafting up from somewhere down below.

_"You know, you remind me of my girlfriend Trisha. You look a lot like her." He said._

_She paused at the ledge of the building, her heart was racing. Her hands began to fidget nervously. At first she thought maybe he had bad intentions but he suddenly started to cry. She looked back at him in shock and then walked up to him putting a hand on his shoulder for comfort._

_"I'm sorry." She said trying to sound sympathetic. _

_She herself watched both of her parents die in the very parking lot they were now over looking. He suddenly wiped his eyes roughly and apologized to her and began to look down at the lot. She stood next to him in silence for a minute thinking of something to say._

_"You don't have to apologize to me." She said._

_He looked down at her and smiled. She smiled back hoping that she didn't look like a total idiot and then they began to talk. He told her how he had gotten into the police academy and that while there he met his girlfriend. Then he told her how his girlfriend died._

_"I left her there to be eaten by those things." He finished and then things went silent again._

_The silence made her wish that he was still talking or that she had something she could say. It just hung there like something dark. It occurred to her that she should tell him that she was only seventeen, but she would be turning eighteen in two days. Then she shrugged that thought off. It was kind of embarrassing even in this twisted world of survival to be talking about something like that. So instead she just stood there in silence with him for a few minutes and then went down into the mall again._

Back in the van he snapped her out of her thoughts. "I'm in pain. I think I need more medicine."

She grabbed a pill bottle from her hip pocket and pulled out two painkillers. She handed them to him and watched as he stuck them in his mouth. He swallowed them and then whispered to her again.

"I think I might be in trouble and I think you might know it." He said.

She looked into his eyes and saw that he knew something was wrong with him. She tried to look away to hide what she thought about it but she was too late. He had seen something in her eyes that betrayed her.

"I think you might have a very bad infection. But I'm not sure just yet. Your wound is looking very bad and it could get worse." She said.

"Hey, we just ran into a big obstacle." Jake said.

They looked out the windows and saw a fence right in the middle of the highway. On the inside of the fence there were hundreds of tents on either side of the road. It was a military set up of some kind, it was also possible that there were survivors in this area.

"One problem, that gate has a chain wrapped around it." Jake said. He looked at the others and then started to get out when Drake stopped him.

"Hey, let me get that lock." he said.

He got out and walked towards the fence when he felt someone touch his back. He turned and saw Elisha and Tyson both standing behind him. Elisha was holding a shotgun.

"We didn't want you to go out alone." She said to him.

He turned and with the butt of his gun, began to strike the chain's lock. He struck it twice before it broke. He watched as it fell to the ground. He looked back at the van and gave them a thumbs up. His chest was throbbing badly and he wanted to lay down but instead he reached for the chain and began to pull it off.

"Nelson, put a bullet in my head, I'm done for."

"I can't man, if you die then I'll be the last one. I don't want to be alone."

The two soldiers had been busy that day killing the living dead that had suddenly flocked the area. Private First Class Fred Nelson and Field Medic Carson Nichols and their nearly endless supply of guns and ammo were shooting at the huge group of walking dead when one of the other "soldiers" suddenly sat up and bit Nichols. They managed to kill it as well as fifty or sixty more before they went to their tent.

"Did you see that shit? Ol' Mickey 'The Mouse' Warren bit me on the leg! That sonuvabitch didn't have the sack to shoot anything when he was alive and now that he's dead he has the nerve to bite me!" Carson said astounded by what had just happened.

"You'll be okay man. It didn't break skin!" Nelson said hoping more than actually knowing.

"No, the bastard bit right through my fuckin' boot and got my calf pretty damn good. Sucker burns like a bastard. Can't believe this." He said.

"But how do you know?" Nelson asked.

"Because I'm a medic you dipshit! How else would I know that!" Carson screamed out.

"You really want me to shoot you?" Nelson asked hoping that Carson would change his mind.

"Yeah, I'm a goner. You saw Tom and Chuck, they both got bit back when we first set this outpost up. They turned in a matter of hours and caused a big ol' mess. Why do you think this place is so secure? It's because we found out that when you get bit, you turn. Major Swarthmore ordered all civilians to be locked out and if they got too close to be shot! God! Where were you during the briefing?"

"I was out back with Stan having a drink. Back then we didn't think it was serious!" Nelson whined.

Carson slapped him hard across the face knocking him flat on his butt. Nelson looked over at him with big hurt eyes. The two of them weren't the only ones to last this long, Mickey had lasted until the day before when for no reason he fell to the ground dead. Carson had said it was a brain aneurysm. Had they been a little more cautious and smart, they would have put a bullet in his head to make sure he was dead. It cost them Carson's very life.

"You and your drinkin' problem! Dammit! Just shoot me and get it over with!" Carson said.

"I can't do it man!" Nelson said after raising his HK 5.

"You loser! I'm in pain here!" Carson yelled.

"What if Aaron comes back?" Nelson said.

"You shoot that deserter in the face! Both him and Dunham. You hear me?! If they couldn't follow orders and shoot those civilians then that's their problem. Should never have enlisted in the army if that was the case! Well, I can see you're stalling for time. My pop always told me that if you want something done right, you got to do it yourself!" Carson said and lifted a handgun to his head.

A single report echoed throughout the area.

"Aw, man. Aw geez now I'm the last one." Nelson said tearfully.

He walked over to the tent they found Major Swarthmore's dead body in, and went inside. It was empty like all of the others. He, Carson, and Mickey had moved all of the bodies to a corner of the outpost and burned them. The fire got out of control once and almost burned down that area but thanks to Carson, they managed to get it under control.

Inside the Major's tent was a large box filled with all kinds of alcohol. He grabbed three bottles, one was a bottle of Jack, the others were southern comfort. Tears were now falling out of his eyes as he opened the Jack and began to drink straight from the bottle. He took three shots of it and then went up to the tower.

He liked the tower for the view that it gave. You could see the city from up there and he always fantasized about walking around the city and finding a pretty young woman. He imagined walking up and down the streets looking at things from one building to the next. He never once stepped foot inside of a big city so to be this close was both agonizing and great.

Being up on the tower, which was thirty feet off the ground, reminded him of killing all of those people. He got a thrill from doing so. He remembered his favorite shot as he sat up there with his guns and whiskey.

It was all at the beginning, just when they started to shut the gates for good. The Major had just issued an order to shoot anyone who got too close to the gate. He was already taking aim when the order came to them. Dunham was there as well but didn't participate. He was a goody-too-shoe, always going against the Major's orders. Him and that loud mouth Sergeant Aaron.

"I took my sniper rifle and aimed it at this guy in a white shirt and watched as he sneaked up to the gate and began to climb it. I waited until he got to the top and BAM! Holy shit! I say as he falls to the ground. He's totally missing half of his head and his body is kicking around!" He said to no one as he remembered this.

He looked down at his crotch and realized that he had just wet his pants thinking about the memory of that kill. He took another swig of the Jack and then perched up his sniper rifle. He aimed it towards the gate and looked around. There was nothing there, just the road.

"Carson why did you leave me!" He wailed to the sky.

He was drinking steadily by then and the bottle of Jack was down to one third. His eye sight began to blur a little bit and yet he still stood at the post. A zombie could walk by and that would make his day. He imagined himself putting a bullet in it's head.

"I love thish job." He mumbled drunkly.

He began to scour the area from behind the scope, hoping to find something to shoot at. He looked from one side of the road to the next in hopes that there would be some straggler. He was about to give up when he saw one, it was near the gate pawing at it trying to get in like so many others have tried before it.

"I gotchu now." He mumbled taking careful aim and squeezing his trigger.

Drake pulled the chain off of the fence and let it fall to the ground. Elisha was about to help him push the gate open when she suddenly felt something hot hit the left side of her face. She looked at Drake who was now lying on the ground in a pool of blood. It was all happening too fast for her.

"Get down someones firing on us!" Tyson screamed out. He went for Elisha who was still standing there in a daze.

He grabbed her and threw her on the ground just as a piece of the road three inches away from their feet exploded. He began to push her towards the van as another piece of the road flew up near them. Tyson saw the shotgun lying two feet away from where he was crawling and reached for it. Just then pain exploded in his left hand.

He started to scream and when he looked at his hand he was shocked to see that his ring and middle finger where missing. His little finger began to bend into a little ball and the blood was coming out fast and in a thick stream. His vision was beginning to cloud out as he began to crawl away from the shotgun and back towards the van.

He looked around once just as a hole appeared in a white car about five feet from where he was lying. He saw the point of origin. A flash from a tower that was about a football field away. He stumbled to where he pushed Elisha, who was now cowering behind the van with the others.

"I saw where the gun fire was coming from." He said ignoring the flaring pain in his hand.

He crawled closer to the van and another shot sent more debris flying up in the air, mere feet away from where he was crawling.

"IS DRAKE DEAD! PLEASE DON'T LET HIM DIE, SAVE HIM!" Elisha suddenly started to scream.

Jake grabbed her around the waist and began to hold her back as she tried to stand up. She started flail and began to cry. Hope was now holding the girl in her arms and Rae Ann was also holding her crying in fear.

"Jake! We got to do somethin' man!" Tyson said as he wrapped his hand up in what was left of his shirt.

"Like what? It might be the military, they could have thought we were zombies!" Jake hollered.

"Yeah right, you saw it! Who ever it was was jus' playin' around with me and Elisha! He bored, wants to kill us! Shit, might even be crazy!" Tyson said.

"Do we have any guns left?" he asked Jake.

His vision was blurry and the shirt he had wrapped around his hand was starting to get soaked with his blood. Jake looked for a weapon of some sort digging through bags and boxes. He was about to give up when he decided at the last second to look underneath the passenger seat. To his surprise he found a gun tucked away. He grabbed it and looked at it.

"We have a pistol!" He said back.

"We gonna have to draw 'im out." Tyson was starting to slur his words.

"I guess I have to do something about this." Jake said.

"What are you going to do?" Hope asked him.

She had her hands full with Elisha and Rae Ann. Each one had a shoulder to cry on.

"I have to draw him out so that we can shoot him." Jake said.

"What!? Why do you keep putting yourself in danger like this!?" She asked him.

"Because I don't want anyone of you to get hurt!" He said.

"Don't worry about runnin' I'll do it. You jus' gotta get inside the gate and sneak up to that tower and kill whoever is up there." Tyson mumbled.

"You're not well enough to do this. You lost way too much blood." Jake said.

Tyson suddenly stood up and ran in a clumsy yet fast pace. He heard the bullets zing by his head, felt the air as one nearly clipped his nose. He didn't dare look back nor did he stop. He ran until he saw cover, a small red corvette. He dove across the road and managed to land behind it. As Tyson began to pass out from blood loss, he saw a gun. It was a machine gun.

"Ain't that some..." Tyson started to say, but passed out.

Jake on the other hand ran through the gate sparing a glance at Drake, he saw with sadness that he was missing part of his head. He then ducked into a tent. Inside the tent he found a machine gun and several magazines. He grabbed what he could and began to sneak to another tent.

"The closer I get to that damn tower the better!" He said to himself.

He stepped out of the tent and was almost shot in the face. He went running back inside and out the other end as he heard the shots bounce off the ground. He managed to get into a tent that was filled with tables. He ducked under one and prayed that no bullets would find him in that area.

Nelson saw the civilian scurry into a tent and fired off a few round. Nothing moved from the tent since then so he assumed that who ever was in there was dead. He took a shot of his whiskey and looked back into the scope. There was a van parked by the fence, he looked at it through the scope. It was going to be target practice.

He took aim and was about to fire a round at it when he heard shots being fired. He searched the area with his scope and found the source when all of a sudden the bullets found their way to the tower hitting it multiple times. He rushed back and ducked behind the metal box he was hiding in.

"Bassard's tryin' ta kill me." He mumbled drunkly.

The firing stopped so he lifted his head up to have a peek. Nothing happened.

"I'm gonna shootcha now!" He said gleefully.

He pointed his gun down in the direction of a red corvette and waited for the black person to try and shoot him again. He was unsteady and cursed himself for allowing himself to get as drunk as he did. He wanted to be sober right then and there. He suddenly had a feeling that someone was watching him and looked down towards the tent he fired at originally. No movement.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and that was when the zombie bit down on his leg. He let out a scream and watched as it tore a chunk off of his leg and began to eat it. He reached for his machine gun but was bitten again. This time his hand was missing a bite sized piece. He pulled his knife out with his good hand and drove the blade deep into it's head and watched as it fell off of the tower ladder onto the ground below.

"Not good. Not good at all." He said suddenly feeling very sober.

Jake looked up and saw with disbelief that a zombie was climbing the ladder up to the tower. He felt fear suddenly course through him. Were they getting smarter? He let the thought race through his head and then decided not to worry about it. He waited for the scream of a man bitten and was not surprised to hear it a few minutes later. He watched as the ghoul fell from the tower and splattered on the ground below.

He began to sneak out, his eyes on the tower the whole time, when he saw a group of the dead coming into the place. He heard the van door slide shut as well as a car door shut somewhere closer. He let out a grunt and wondered what he should do. He was beginning to worry about the sudden appearance of the living dead.

He ran to a tent and jumped inside, it was another one with a cot and guns in it. He grabbed another gun and then looked back towards the tower. He looked up just in time to see someone stagger over the edge of the tower. He watched as the persons head smashed into the ground and splattered everywhere.

"I'm already dizzy. I think I'm becomin' one of those things." Nelson panicked.

He started to walk towards the edge of the tower, wanting to see if anymore of them were coming up the ladder, but was still drunk and dizzy from blood loss. He lost his balance and watch as the ground drew closer and closer to his face. His head shattered into pieces and pulp flew in all directions.

PFC Nelson was dead.

They got the van through the outpost in one piece, stopping to kill the zombies that were inside and to wrap the chain around it again. Drake's body was dragged out of the way and set inside one of the tents. A blanket was laid over his body. Elisha cried.

Tyson was in and out of consciousness for the rest of the day. They had to feed him Drakes painkillers every once in a while. As they were leaving they managed to take some guns and ammo as well as K-rations. Jake broke the second lock on the other side of the outpost and opened the gate. On the other side it was clear of any traffic and they could see houses in the surrounding area.

"Looks like we managed to find the suburbs." Hope said.

Jake smiled at her and took her hand. Rae Ann saw this and put her hand on top of theirs. They all smiled at each other. Tyson was out for the time being and Elisha was fixing his hand as best as she could. She had to use a needle and thread to sew his hand.

"Are we gonna be a family Hope?" The little girl asked.

"You know, I think we are." She said.

That was when they were stopped by a yellow Toyota truck. A large man and three other people were waving them down. Hope felt the urge to continue driving as she was scared. Jake squeezed her hand and told her to stop.

He climbed out of the vehicle and slung the machine gun over his shoulder. The large man waved his hands in defense when he saw Jake meant to hold the gun up to them.

"We don't mean any harm! We were just surprised to see other people!" The man said.

"Sorry, we just got shot at, we lost a good friend in that fire." Jake said.

Everyone got out of the van and introduced themselves. As it turned out, Remy the large man and his whole family survived the nightmare and had decided to leave the suburbs before it got too hectic. His wife, son, and daughter all thanked Hope and Jake for stopping. Then Jake asked Remy a question.

"Would you like to go with us to the mountains. We think we might stand a chance there."Remy agreed and soon they all began to get things ready for a second time that day.

Elisha looked at the locket that Rae Ann was holding and walked to where she was standing. She bent down and smiled at the little girl. Rae looked up at her and smiled as well. She then hugged Elisha who suddenly went into tears.

"Rae, can I look at the locket?" She asked the little one.

"Yeah, Drake gave it to me. He said he wanted to give it to you but you were driving."

They held it together and opened the clasp. Inside was a picture of a pretty woman that had reddish blond hair. She looked a lot like Elisha. Rae was surprised, but thoughtful at the same time. When she spoke she caused Elisha to cry again.

"Is that you Elisha?" She asked.

Elisha hugged the little girl tight and told her no. She looked down at the locket once more and suddenly she heard his voice almost clear enough to be real. It was strong and even, just like it had been that day he talked to her on the roof.

_"You know, you remind me of my girlfriend Trisha. You look a lot like her." _He said.


	8. Chapter 8

(Disclaimer, I don't own any of the ideas to Dawn of the Dead or any other zombie franchise.)

Final Chapter

Five days later...

The van stood at the base of a mountain, all of it's doors open. Most of what was in it was taken and it was already inhabited by a group of squirrels. Twenty feet next to the van was a beaten up yellow Toyota pick up truck. It was also empty of the things that were once packed in it. Next to that vehicle was a Humvee.

Of the fifteen people that had escaped from the city, only one more died. He was unfortunate enough to have been bitten by a zombie while they were escaping. Sergeant David Aaron put the man out of his misery. A single bullet to the head. This also made the Sgt. The last soldier in his squad to survive the nightmare.

"It's easy, take a deep breath and squeeze the trigger, you'll hit the target almost every time." Hopes father once told her when she was younger.

She now held a rifle and thought of those words as she took aim and squeezed the trigger. A buck from fifteen yards or so suddenly fell forward and died. She hit her mark. Behind her and about seventeen feet away, was David Aaron. He had been at the base of the mountain with his group of survivors camping out when Hope and her group and pulled up.

His group had been all civilians except for himself and another soldier he only referred to as Dunham. The story goes, he and Dunham were ordered to kill all the civilians that were inside the outpost.. A man named Major Swarthmore had ordered it. The civilians were then separated into seven groups of four. Each group was shot by two different soldiers.

David and Dunham managed to sneak their civilians out while a soldier named Tom Grayson turned into a zombie. They rescued a Forty year old man and his sixteen year old son, a thirty one year old woman, and a three year old girl. As they were escaping, a soldier named Chuck Darrow attacked the group. Dunham was bitten and with great effort made it out of the outpost and was allowed to live his short life out at the base of the mountain. David killed him as he was turning.

"Good freaking shot!" He said amazed by her marksmanship.

"Thanks, everyone was complaining about the rations so I thought maybe fresh food would help them along." She said and then put the gun on safety.

They grabbed the deer and with Jake and Remy's help they managed to drag it back to the campsite. Once there, they skinned it and cleaned it and got it ready for a cookout.

They found the clearing, which in Hope's opinion was more like a plateau, the same day they started to hike up the mountain side. It took them around two hours to get this high and the air was thin at first, but they had all gotten used to it. She saw that Tyson had taken an interest in farming since his hand was nearly blown off five days earlier.

He had found that the wound was healing with no problems and even though he complained a lot, he was adapting to the loss of two of his fingers. He found several packs of seeds from inside the van just before they left for the mountain.

"We'll be having ourselves some corn and tomatoes by the end of the season." He said.

She smiled and gave him a brief one armed hug before she went to the area that David and Jake started to fence off. It was good to see Jake working so hard to keep her and Rae Ann safe but she felt like she still had something important to do before she settled down. It came to her the night before they went on their hunt.

She shook the thought away and walked up to them with a few bottles of water. They had managed to cut down twenty trees by ax yesterday. Now they were working on building a wall of some kind around their camp and farming area. It was Tyson's idea and to the rest of the people that were surviving in the area, it was a damn good idea.

They had a meeting, decided to have meetings once a week, and decided to build a wall. The plan was to make it big enough to surround them and cover a lot of ground as well. They all figured it would take a year at most with the tools they had. If not for Remy's ax, it would have taken longer.

Remy had been the kind of man that had loved to work on his own house and yard before the dead began to walk. He had the tools in his truck the day they escaped the suburbs. Had even given a hoe and shovel to Tyson as gifts for his farm. Tyson had thanked him over and over many times.

So it seemed that the survivors who managed to escape the city, had been living in peace and harmony, except for Hope, and one other thing.

The one other thing was something bad, and it was discovered by Remy's son Garret and Darrick JR, the son of Darrick SR one of the survivors in David's group.

They were told not to stray very far from the camp, and were given a gun for safety. Garret suggested they take a quick hike around the mountain and see what they could see. Darrick JR wanted to pick flowers for Elisha, and so they went down the mountain a ways to look for flowers and to explore. Garret, who took to calling Darrick 'D', was the first to see the bad thing.

"Hey I'm going to see how far I could see down the mountain with this scope." He said.

He looked down the mountain and then looked up at D, he had a terrified look in his eyes. He shakily handed the gun to the other teen.

"Look through that scope down there and tell me what you see!" He said worriedly.

D looked down the mountain and at first saw nothing but the van, which was beginning to look weathered from the days it was left unattended, then just past it maybe a few hundred feet away was a large dark shape. He couldn't tell what it was at first but as it got close he realized what it was and began to panic.

"What do we do?" He asked Garret.

"We have to tell the others!" He said.

They ran to the camp and when they got there they told Tyson, who was one of the only grown ups there. He looked at them and then told everyone at the camp to get ready for a meeting. He walked off into the woods and found the others. They were told what he was told and went immediately to the camp for the meeting.

"It took them five days to catch up to us." Tyson said.

The rest of them looked at him and waited for him to continue. He thought about what to say and after a moment he spoke again, "We don't know if they can actually climb the mountain though. So we shouldn't worry about it just yet. In the meantime, Jake and Remy, can gather all of the men and start making some kind of makeshift barricade around us. It just has to be able to hold them off." Tyson finished.

Jake kept remembering the one he saw climbing a ladder and stood up with that in mind. He looked at everyone else and then spoke,"We have a problem, they can climb things. That's how that sniper back at the outpost got killed. He was bitten. I watched it climb up that ladder."

"Then we'll dig a trench first. We'll make it deep enough to where they can't get out and then we'll burn them and bury the remains." David said.

It wasn't the best idea, but it was something to think about and it did give everyone faith that it would work. So Jake, David, the two Darrick's, Remy, and his son all began to dig a trench. As the hours dragged on, they continued to dig. By night fall they had a trench that was nine feet deep and it almost circled the entire camp. They worked from that morning until late that night.

The next day they had managed to dig an entire circle around themselves. It was eight feet wide and nine feet deep. Garret jokingly referred to it as the moat. No one laughed, everyone was worried about what was going to happen. On the sixth day, they had started to put up the wall. It wasn't very tall, only five feet , but it also gave them a little more comfort. It was during this day that Hope had decided what she was going to do..

She had been carrying a cheap mp3 player around for Elisha and had been messing with it, this was three days before the discovery. She found that it had a radio dial and began to mess with it. Listening to the static over the AM band. She flipped it to the FM band and began to go over all of the channels thinking it would be nice to hear something on it. She was just moving across 101.7 when she heard something. It was a murmur from someone over the static.

She strained her ears to hear what it said and managed to catch some of it. She looked at the station's frequency and realized that the very radio station that this came from was in her home town, a six hour drive from the city. She listened to the murmur some more.

"Repeat, -ghting them back. - Not a record-ng. ----as been freed of all those dea- thin-s. -afety, managed to make it -afe -ll ov- t-wn!" It said.

Hope waited until everyone was sleeping before she left a note on Tyson's tent. She decided to walk down the other side of the mountain and go the long way around to get to her hometown. She started to leave when someone grabbed her hand. She looked back and saw Rae Ann and Jake.

"What are you two doing?" She asked them.

"What are you doing Hope?" Jake asked her.

She put her head down and then she looked up at the two of them and spoke.

"I'm going to see if what I heard on the radio was true. If it is, I'm going to go see my father. I was going to come back for you two as soon as I found out if it was true or not." She said.

"We'll go with you then." Jake said.

"No! I can't let you put yourselves in danger!" She argued.

"Hope, we love you, both of us do. We won't just stand here and let you go by yourself. Right Rae Ann?" Jake said.

"Nope, mommy I want to go with you!" Rae Ann said.

A single tear fell from her eye and she embraced the girl she had grown to love as her own child. Rae Ann had hugged her tightly and kissed her on the cheek. Jake grabbed a bag with supplies and two guns and enough ammo to keep them shooting the guns all night if needed. Then he grabbed a hold of Hope and kissed her lovingly on the mouth. She embraced him with one arm and held Rae Ann with the other as they walked down the darkened path into the night.

"We're a family now aren't we?" Rae Ann asked them as they made their way carefully across the mountain on the other side.

"Yes." Hope said as she held the little girl tightly and squeezed Jake's hand with her own.

They walked down the path into an uncertain world, a world that was full of danger and terrible things. They went together. They went as a family.

The End

(If anyone wants me to continue the adventure in a sequel, feel free to write and let me know! Thanks to all of you that read this story.)


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